A Promise Kept
by Team Light
Summary: All things have to end eventually, no matter how much one wishes to continue or what business is left unfinished. Reset after reset, it couldn't keep going forever, even if Frisk wanted to save everyone. The cycle had to be broken. And so, a promise was made, a promise that would be kept... (With all the drama out of the way, this is a female Frisk FanFic, you have been warned)
1. Chapter 1: Something Better to do

_Just a fair warning/ introduction to this story. I am writing what I want because I thought this was a good idea, and because after looking for things to satisfy my wants for an Undertale after-story, I never found anything that suited my needs/wants. If I ask for suggestions, then please, by all means, go ahead and say what you would like to see. If I do not, I will not hate you or refuse to respond to that or future reviews, just don't be disappointed if I don't do anything with what you said. The one other important thing I can remember at the moment is that this is not, and never will be, a "lemon". I don't dislike people for writing or enjoying stories of that nature; I just don't personally enjoy them myself at all and I avoid them. Now, with this long intro out of the way (sorry if this bothers you, I just wanted to say what I thought needed to be said), let the story begin…_

* * *

 **Frisk**

She waved to her friends for what seemed like – and what may very well be – the millionth time as Frisk walked away from the broken barrier. She did not rush towards her goal; savoring every moment of the long walk, stopping with a smile to read the texts sent by Toriel and Sans, talk with the monsters she had met (including one, very specific, totally normal talking snowman), or simply to gaze at the sights along the way. It still made her laugh to think of how little among the monsters knew that she was the human – or even a human for that matter – who had participated in freeing them from their centuries old prison. As she neared the entrance to the Underground in the Ruins, ideas came into Frisk's mind. _"What if I called everyone here to make him see that they would accept him_?" or _"I'm sure I can talk him out of his stubbornness"_ were among the ones that came the most clearly.

"Maybe with just one more rese-"

She cut herself off there before finishing the sentence. _"No. There will be no more resets. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it."_ Beyond Frisk's promise, she knew Sans was probably there as well, to make sure she didn't get caught up in the spur of the moment, and do something rash. Frisk stopped just before the doorway to collect her thoughts. _"This is it."_

With that phrase hanging in the back of her head, Frisk took a deep breath, and walked in.

 **Sans**

Sans knew that Frisk would keep the promise she made to him in the Judgment Hall before meeting Asgore. Yet he still followed her back to the Entrance. _"Just in case."_ He decided to give the two some privacy as they talked, like he always had. Except for that one time, but he had to know what happened by those flowers. There were times to watch, times to wait, and times to act. This was time for neither the former nor the latter, so he settled for waiting. He used this time to think about the past, and the future. All things considered, he was actually glad that he was the only one to share the burden of his memories. _"Frisk doesn't know as much as she thinks. Good thing too. Those memories would tear her apart."_ Funny, tear was a great word for puns. Not only was it two words in and of itself, but it could be used in larger words, like terrible, for example. Although, he had already pulled that pun on Papyrus on more than one occasion. _"Man, I should write a book. I could call it_ Of Paper and Puns _. It would be tear-ible."_ Sans chuckled quietly to himself at that joke.

After a few minutes of silence and concentration (concentrating focused mainly on coming up with new puns), the kiddo finally came out of the room, same state as always. Tiny rivers seemed to leak from Frisk's eyes while she tried to keep calm. After all, the poor child was only nine, and even though she'd been through this countless times over, it wasn't easy for her to let go. Who knows, maybe she hasn't let go. Sans figured a hug would be appreciated, and spread his arms out. The force of impact knocked him off his feet, but luckily for the two of them, levitation was one of his specialties. After a minute or so of comforting the sobbing girl, he gently floated them to the ground.

"Geez kid, I don't think this sweater will ever quite be the same."

"Sorry Sans, it's just…"

"It's alright, I get how you feel. You tried your best, but some things just can't change."

 **Frisk**

Once the sniffling calmed a bit, Sans asked Frisk if she would like to take a "shortcut" back to meet up with the others.

" _Don't you have anything better to do?"_ That one phrase had haunted Frisk for a long time, ever since the first time she had managed to get this far. She didn't think it would ever stop haunting her either. _"It's something I am going to have to live with, until either I can fix this, or…"_ Frisk decided not to finish that train of thought.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'd rather walk. Take some time to really calm down and organize my head a bit."

"Oh, ok. Mind if I join you?"

"Not one bit."

Most of the walk back to the exit was passed in silence, simply taking comfort in the presence of another individual who understood things. When the pair did talk, it was of Hopes – and yes, Dreams too – for the future.

"How are we gonna live up there? Are we gonna build a town for ourselves, or move in with the humans?"

"I like the town idea, I think humanity may need some time to get used to monsters reappearing. Hopefully I do a good job as ambassador."

"I'm sure you will."

"You think Papyrus will ever be able to cook a proper plate of edible food?"

"If I know my brother, and think I do, he'll be far too DETERMINED to stop trying until he either does, or we find some new hobby to distract him with."

"Let's hope we can find someone other than Undyne to teach him then."

"Agreed."

Eventually, Frisk and Sans re-joined everyone else, prepared to leave the Underground forever. There was so much excitement over this whole "leaving" concept that everyone just kinda stood there and talked about it for a bit before they finally took their first steps in a long time out into the great, big world above.

Maybe, just maybe, if Frisk didn't dwell on the past too much, she would find something better to do. Or at least something to take her mind off the one thing she never could do...

End of Prologue

* * *

 _I am so nervous about putting this out here, I almost don't want to. If anyone sees this and decides it may be worth investing a bit of time in, please comment/review with what I can do to improve my writing. Don't go easy, I can take a bit of constructive criticism.  
_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_

 _PS: This story is not self-insertion into the UT world, the reason I signed under that name is 'cause it's my social media name (steam/skype/gmail/etc.), so please don't hate me_ _=^.^=_


	2. Chapter 2: A New Dawn

_Sorry about the large delay on this chapter, I was showing it to some of my friends to make sure it was ready to be put out. With that said, thank you to all forty-one of the viewers on my first chapter. And a special thanks to Deadlyswarm for being the first to follow this story, as well as the Anon who gave me my first review. I really appreciate it =^.^=!_

* * *

This was it. The dawn of a new age. One of peace, or of war? Only the future holds our answers, but our SOULs hold our hopes…

 **Sans**

The sun was beautiful, perhaps made more so purely by how real it truly felt this time. No more worries of it all ending right there. Fears of waking up back in his room underground were lost as Sans marveled at this view, same as the first time he'd seen it. _"There goes Pap, same as always. Guess I better go catch up to him."_ Everyone but Frisk sighed when he turned back towards the broken barrier after announcing he would talk to Papyrus. _"Maybe I will let Undyne be the one to tell him why he can't go running into the nearest settlement, yelling to the humans about being friends."_ Nevertheless, he still teleported to his approximation of how far Papyrus would get before Undyne caught up. Yet, instead of waiting there, Sans decided to look around. It didn't take him long to find the clearing he so distinctly remembered setting up in before. He figured there was some time before everyone reached the bottom of the mountain. _"Time for a short nap it seems. Hmmm, that makes me wonder. Does Napsta ever actually sleep, or just fake it all the time?"_ Most people called Napstablook by Napsta, simply because it was easier to say, and he didn't mind. Sans on the other hand, just didn't like the fact that (all puniness aside) STAB was a key word in Napsta's name. Sans, thinking about his query, eventually fell into his standard shallow sleep. Not so shallow that there's no actual rest involved, but not deep enough for his nightmares to take hold.

Maybe three quarters of an hour or so later, Sans awoke to the sounds of a large group of people a little ways off. _"I suppose that's about it for rest today, time to show everyone what I've 'discovered'."_ He moved back into the woods, making his way towards the path he would meet up with everyone else at. Upon his arrival, Papyrus stomped his way towards him, looking "just a little" peeved. _"This is new. What did I do differently?"_

"SANS! WHERE WERE YOU?!"

"Napping."

"Now?! Where?! You've been gone almost an hour!"

"Yes, yes I have."

"No one knew where you were! You could have gotten lost. Frisk told me that humans may attack us if they see us. What would you have done if you ran into some?"

At that moment, a child wearing a blue shirt with pink stripes came into view, face contorted in a miserable failure at an attempt to hide a smile. _"That little… so I HADN'T done anything different, I just forgot there was another who might change things up."_ In reality, Sans wasn't really upset, it was actually kind of funny. And he didn't mind these moments that proved to him that there are people who cared.

"I woulda been fine. Besides, if worst came to worst, I could just wow them with my SANSational jokes" *wink*

"…"

*wink*

"Of all the most idiotic, lazy, hare-brained, thick-skul-"*Papyrus' eyes open wide as he clamps his jaw shut, refusing to finish his sentence*

*begins laughing* "Go on, thick what?" *still laughing*

"THICK. SKULLED."

"See Pap? It runs in the family! You have the same magical gift I do."

"Turning SOULs blue?"

"Better. Puns."

 **Frisk**

It was all Frisk could do to keep from bursting into a fit of laughter as Papyrus stalked back towards Undyne and Alphys, while Sans gave her a look that seemed to say "we're going to have a nice long chat about this later". Toriel happened to look over at her newly adopted daughter to see her almost doubled over from holding in the sure to be violent outburst of merriment.

"Is everything alright my child?"

*holds up her finger to signal that she needed a moment, and takes a few deep breaths before responding*"Phew… yes, couldn't be better."

It was then that Sans began to walk up towards Asgore, probably to tell him of the large open area that would be a great place to get started with life on the surface. The first time the timeline had progressed this far, the clearing had been discovered when Sans teleported off to head off Papyrus, but guessed a little too far off and materialized directly in the center of the expanse of land to the east.

"Frisk?"

"Yes Mom?"

*looks at Frisk with an almost confused expression*"I'm still going to have to take a bit to get used to the whole 'Mom' thing. It has been a while…"*appears to get lost in thought, with a sad look in her eyes*

*semi-quietly, to bring Toriel back to the world*"So… what was your question?"

"Oh, yes. It took you very little consideration in deciding whether to stay with us monsters, or look for anything you may have had before you fell. How were you so quick in your choice?"

*Frisk knew that honesty is a great policy, but sometimes it's not the best for people involved*"I never really had a family. If there was nothing for me to think about, then it shouldn't have taken long at all."

Which wasn't really a lie, all things considered. Frisk had no family she wished to see; more than that though, she had already gone the route of leaving her newfound family, and seeking her old ones, just from pure curiosity. Things didn't turn out well, any of the few times she tried.

"Well, you have made your decision, and I will be more than happy to have you as my daughter, my child." *laughs a bit about how silly the last part sounded*

*looks at Toriel and smiles brightly*

It was then that Asgore had decided to make good use of the land that Sans had pointed out. He announced this revelation to the monsters in his somehow booming yet soft at the same time voice used for giving speeches to crowds.

"Monsters… and Frisk."*waves back at Frisk as she waves to him*"It appears that there is a nice area of open ground we can use to get started on our settlement. As of now, it being late day, we will use the supplies and such that were brought to pitch tents for the night. Tomorrow, we will begin the real work of getting a more permanent Home set up for us all."

The monsters began to murmur comments of agreement. For all his bad naming habits, Asgore did make a pretty great leader.

"Well, let's get starte-"

The monster king was cut short by a loud sound, sounding almost like something was hacking away at something high in the air. Frisk and Sans, having the memories of these same events from previous timelines, were calm. The same could not be said of the other monsters. A feeling of unease and worry worked its way through all of them. When the origin of the noise was finally found, the monsters looked up in awe…

Helicopters.

* * *

 _Things are getting a little crazy (and by that I mean almost nothing has really happened other than cliffhangers and foreshadowing). Again, I am really thankful for all of you who came to see my story. I may say it "too much" but it's how I feel. Without you guys, I'm not sure I would have posted this next bit any time soon. So, in closing, thank you for all your support. It helps me in ways you may not believe._

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	3. Chapter 3: The People Above

_Just a heads up on this chapter, I tried to go into further detail than i have in the past. If you do/don't like it, for whatever reason, be sure to let me know. Now on with the normal AN stuff. Within a few hours of the second chapter getting posted, the views went from 43 to 101! That's awesome! Not only that, but thank you to Animehero14 for being the second follower! You guys are great. Now, on with the story._

* * *

 **Frisk**

The helicopters landed in the field where the village would soon sprout, just as they always had. The people who came out were mainly composed of TV news channel crews. Cameras were being pulled out and pointed at the monsters. Frisk made sure that Asgore told everyone not to freak out (especially Undyne). None of the humans wanted to get close enough to talk, but Frisk knew that there would be talking to do eventually. After thirty minutes, a new group of people arrived. It was an armed convoy which seemed to be focused around one vehicle at the center. A slightly above average height, important looking woman dressed in very formal, business-like attire stepped out, and was immediately taken out of view by a circle of men and women in heavy body armor. The circle moved towards the center of the clearing and waited as a tent and lights were set up. This was going to be a long night. _"Good thing we have memory on our side, or it'd be an even longer one."_ Once everything appeared to be suitable for the humans, the woman stepped out of the tent, holding a megaphone.

"Monsters." She said the word calmly, but you could almost feel the contempt in the word; although, maybe that was just past resets giving Frisk a new perspective. "We are not here to fight, but we will use drastic measures if necessary. Have your leader step forward, and anyone they wish to take with them."

At that order, Asgore looked at Frisk and stepped out in front of his people; he turned and motioned for Undyne to move up as well. Frisk needed no signal, she knew her duty here. The woman looked at Asgore, not seeming surprised as he did look like a king, and at Undyne, who casually held a spear across her shoulders behind her neck while she glared at the human soldiers, almost as if daring them to do something stupid. When the woman's gaze fell on Frisk, she had a bit of a confused look, and turned to whisper something to a man who Frisk recognized as her advisor.

"You will come into the tent with me, and we will talk of the events of the past, and what will come in the future. You may bring your bodyguard, and the… child." The woman commanded after she finished her whispering.

With that, she turned and walked into the tent, followed by two guards and her advisor.

Asgore looked worriedly over at the men with guns, and then turned to Frisk and Undyne.

"Well, she's very quick and to the point. Undyne, do attempt to remain calm; this is the future of our people we are bargaining with here. Frisk, are you ready?"

Once he received a nod from his two friends, Asgore began to walk towards the tent, with Frisk and Undyne in tow. Upon reaching the entrance, Undyne was told to hand over her spear, to which she replied with a laugh as she made the spear disappear, reappear, and disappear once more. The soldier's face was full of surprise as the trio entered the tent to find a table with three empty chairs. Surprisingly, the one in the center was actually large enough for Asgore to sit in without too much discomfort (Frisk's chair was far too large, and she would be disappointed, but she already knew this would happen). Directly across from him sat the woman, with her advisor to her right, and another man sitting at her left.

She was the first to break the silence.

"So, it appears the legends really were true. I take it you are their King?"

Asgore nodded slowly.

"And why is there a human child with you monsters, as well as here in this tent?" There was a slight bit of curiosity in her voice, but there was an overwhelmingly cold and calculating edge to her features. It was all Frisk could do not to shiver, looking into those eyes so intensely peering down at the young girl.

"She" replied Asgore "is the ambassador between monsters and humans."

At that, the camera-man focused his attention on Frisk as the on-site reporter talked in an almost hushed voice, probably to the reporter at the news station this was being broadcast to.

"What an odd choice. How old are you, dear?" The woman stressed the word "dear", almost as if she considered Frisk a toddler, which she very well might.

"That is none of your concern" Frisk tried as hard as she could to keep an attitude from entering her voice. It wasn't easy. "We are here to discuss the rights of monsters as a sentient, feeling people who live on this planet, same as all of you."

This came as close to startling the woman as Frisk had seen so far. However, she quickly regained her composure.

"'All of you?' You say that as if you are not a human yourself. Nonetheless, we will not negotiate with a mere child."

"I believe you have no choice, she is my chosen ambassador, and I give her my authority over negotiations." Asgore was no longer his normal happy and pleasant self. His face was grim and serious as he said that.

The woman's lips thinned down to a line at that comment by the monster king.

"Well then, shall we get started? I am Alicia Kent, the President of the United Earth Governments." Alicia was a very fair-skinned and light-haired (almost white it was so light) woman with coldly burning ice-blue eyes who appeared to be in her mid-to-late thirties, which seemed a little young for such a high position in the government of the world. She then gestured to her right. "This is my advisor and Vice President, Daniel Harris." He, unlike Alicia, fit his place a little better. He was a tall man of a dark complexion with brown eyes and a light touch of grey to his close cut hair, who looked in his later forties to early fifties.

"It is a pleasure to meet with you here, at such an eventful turn of history." He was sincere in his words and actually looked upon Asgore with an expression of amazement rather than cool hatred like his advisee. Frisk knew him to be a kind-hearted man, who fought for equality amongst humanity before the creation of the UEG and his ascension to chief advisor/VP. He was the main reason these negotiations turned out well in previous timelines.

"And this is the Keeper of Records for political matters, George Pierce." George was someone you'd expect to see sitting behind a desk at a library. He was a small, wiry old man, with thick glasses and actually a relatively large amount of his white hair left atop his head, considering he looked almost seventy. His blue-green eyes were full of curiosity; there was neither malice nor compassion in his features. He held a large notepad in his right hand as he carefully and quickly wrote along to what was happening with his left.

" _A practiced and licensed bookworm if ever I saw one."_ Although Frisk couldn't really say too much. She loved books herself.

"I suppose it is our turn then." Asgore said once he realized George would not be speaking. "I am King Asgore Dreemurr." He looked at Undyne "This is the captain of my Royal Guard, Undyne." Undyne flashed a devilish grin at the title, displaying her sharp teeth in an attempt to scare Alicia. It did not work. "And this, as you know, is my Royal Ambassador, Frisk." Asgore rested his large hand on Frisk's shoulder. It was too large for him to actually rest it on her shoulder, so he just held it there for a moment.

Alicia began almost as soon as Asgore finished. "With the formalities out of the way, let's get to business. What do you want?"

Asgore's face gave away exactly how he felt at that question. He was completely shocked and caught off-guard. Luckily, Frisk already knew what to say, and was talking before Asgore could think about it.

"We want this field and the surrounding area for resources and space to build a new home, and a guarantee that neither you nor any other human can lawfully impede or get involved in the re-integration without the monsters' consent for ten years. Once the time is up, and we have established a settlement, further negotiation will be opened for the terms upon which monsters and humans are going to co-exist."

Alicia was taken back at the sudden demand from Frisk (as well as the show of an intellect beyond a normal nine year-old), but quickly pulled Daniel away from the table to discuss the terms privately. After a few minutes, the two came back to the table with their own additions. Daniel was the one to speak them.

"We will agree to this. However, you must allow an annual meeting about events that occur here and an inspection of the area. The sole purpose for this is to make sure that monster-kind does not decide to act upon any long-standing grudges you may be harboring against humanity. This is all."

This time, it was Asgore who excused himself, Frisk, and Undyne from the table to talk in a hushed whisper.

"I don't like this Asgore. Humans invading our privacy once a year? Yeah right. I'll take on all the punks myself before that happens." Undyne was not joking.

"It's not too ridiculous Undyne, and it is understandable. Frisk, your thoughts?

Frisk knew that these would be the terms that they would live with in the end, and that they would not cause too much trouble. She wanted to try something though. After whispering to Asgore, the three resumed their places at the table, ready to finish this meeting. It was getting darker outside and there would be little light at all to prepare for the night.

"We have reached a decision. We will abide by your terms. With one condition. The annual meetings will be held here, not anywhere else." Frisk never liked dealing with the crowds of humans in the places that were chosen for the meetings. She especially wasn't fond of being hit by thrown objects when "none of the guards were looking" or being called a traitor and a whole slew of other things.

Daniel didn't give Alicia time to consider. "Humanity accepts. Alicia, I believe it is your place to call this negotiation to a close. Give these people some time to set up."

Alicia looked furious, but she took a deep breath and regained her "serenity". "Yes, we are done here. Let all decisions made upon the ground here today be written clear for all to know and respect." With that, she stalked out of the tent, the humans following her.

"That went well." Asgore happily remarked.

" _Things tend to go your way when you can 'see the future'. I guess a more accurate phrase would be 'remember the past'."_ Nevertheless, Frisk felt accomplished. Asgore, Undyne, and Frisk walked out of the tent to tell the monsters of the negotiations, and to help with preparations.

As they walked out, Frisk gazed up at the peak of Mt. Ebott, jutting out far above the tree line. She felt something nagging at her core, her SOUL, and her eyes began to tear up. _"This is not the time for this. I will not break my promise. Not this time."_ Frisk wiped her eyes dry with her sleeve.

"…"

"…"

" _That doesn't mean I've given up though…"_

* * *

 _That one took a bit to write, especially considering I write most of my stuff all in one session. I liked it, so hopefully you all feel the same way. I have a couple things to say before i end this one though. First, I've been thinking about the story's title, and I kinda want to change it. Only problem is, I'm not exactly the best at coming up with names. If any of you have suggestions, I'm all ears (unless they are offensive or inappropriate in some way, shape, or form). Second, I have some "time-jumping" scheduled for the next chapter. By that I mean just pressing the fast-forward button a bit in between scenes. Don't say I didn't warn you. Thanks for continuing to read my story, and I will see you (maybe) next chapter!  
_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	4. Chapter 4: Visiting Friends

_The last chapter did far better than I had expected it to. I was actually planning on doing a view milestone when the story hit two hundred views, but you guys destroyed that in little time. Now we're at two hundred eighy-four views. That is insane to me. Thank all of you for coming here and reading this. Special thanks to the FOUR new followers: Bigtoven, Tobias Ux Ultor, Xui23, and Bobston. The fact that four people read the story and followed all on the same chapter just blows my mind. Normally, this would be where I quit my ramblings, and let you guys read. However, Bobston left a review that I kinda wanted to respond to. It's a long one, so I won't put it in here, but you can read it for yourself if you want to know what I'm talking about. I am thankful for your review, and wanted to say that it kinda helped me come up with some things for this chapter, and for a chapter later on down the road. Although (I know I'm gonna sound like I'm defending myself here, and that I don't agree with your comment, which I do agree with it), the "negotiations" that took place last chapter were less real negotiations, and more a way to put the monsters on the back burners while humanity figured out what to do with them. It was also a way to contain them, like you had mentioned. I also kinda just forgot about the whole paperwork thing, so... yeah. I'll try to make it more realistic next time. That concludes my response. Remember though guys, I want you to criticize me (fairly please though), it's the only way to improve (compliments are nice too, if you think they've been earned =^.^=). Sorry for the long AN, if you've read up to this point, I'm going to shut up now and let you all read._

* * *

 **Sans**

With the help of every monster, it didn't take too long for Surface Home (you have three guesses as to who named it) to get set up. However, with the monsters being "isolated" from the rest of the world for the time being, there was an issue with food, water, and electricity. Luckily, Alphys found a way to route the water from a nearby lake and the electricity from the CORE to the village on the surface. It was just a matter of getting people to help with the job, which with the entire population of the Underground at hand wasn't much of a problem. The food issue was solved the same way as it had been when they were sealed up. Magic and energy (Frisk needed human food on occasion plainly for the physical nutrients and minerals in it, but finding food for one person with a civilization's worth of help wasn't exactly hard). It was only about ten months of hard work before everyone was settled in some measure of comfort in the shoddily named enclosure. _"It feels like an enclosure, at least. It's like the Underground all over again, except we're being watched this time."_ The humans tried to be "stealthy" but didn't quite realize how good the monsters were at spotting things that they would miss. _"I guess some things never change. Humanity was, is, and likely always will be afraid of us. Oddly enough, they are the ones without the guts to say it."_ Normally, a joke like that would have at least put a more mellowed curve to his mouth, but now didn't seem quite right for that. Sans was lying on his bed in the house that was shared between Frisk and her friends. Most monsters were living in groups for the time being. Eventually, there would be enough space and housing for everyone to have their own homes for them and their family. Sans didn't really mind the current arrangement though. Actually, only those who had to take turns with bunking with Jerry were having issues with this plan. Everyone had warm beds near windows that the sun shown in through in the morning, and roof access to watch the sun set over the trees. The fresh air was nice too. No one had realized how stuffy and stale the air was under the mountain until they had taken their first breaths of this wonderful atmosphere the humans had greedily kept for themselves all these centuries. Life was happy, and with everyone having relatively no work to do (as plans were still being made for expansion and the pipelines and electrical wires and cables needed little maintenance), there was a lot of time for thought. And for Sans, that just meant a lot of time for coming up with new puns, and catching up on the sleep he was missing at night. After all, he couldn't just leave the kid unattended. There were too many times he remembered having woken up to screams and seeing the familiar form of Frisk, eyes shimmering red, covered in dust and blood already beginning to dry on her shirt, standing at his door with an orange scarf in her left hand while the right was occupied by a very sharp object that reflected the moon's glow back red. _"Maybe it's time to stop thinking, and take a nap."_ Too much thought always seemed to lead to…

 **Frisk**

Depression. That's the sum of what Frisk was feeling after realizing that Alphys couldn't help her. Frisk had explained the situation to the scientist with the hope that Alphys' experimentation on the SOUL would have revealed some secret or knowledge that could be of use. Alphys had no such thing, and didn't have either the resources or the want to do further research (unless there was some sort of "synthetic SOUL" she could work with). Even with the current state of things, Frisk did not give up hope. She was Determined to find a way to fix this. She had found out that Asriel and Chara shared the same birthday a while ago, and had asked if the others would like to take a visit to Chara's grave in the Ruins once a year on that date. She explained it as a way to honor the two children in their lives and their sacrifices. This was only half true. While Frisk did believe what she told the others, she had a secret agenda. _"There has to be some way. I can feel it. Maybe if I can talk to Flowey, I can coax some information out of him that might be of use."_ The only problem with that plan is that Frisk would have to find a way to talk without revealing Flowey to everyone else. She figured it'd be best for all parties involved if he remained a "secret" unless it was necessary to tell anyone. Regardless of any plans Frisk had, the visit was tomorrow morning. It was already late in the night, and staying up any longer wasn't going to do any good with the early wake-up call that would soon come knocking. With that in mind, Frisk decided to get some sleep. It didn't come easily, and when it did, it wasn't very pleasant. Frisk's dreams were enough to have her wake twice during the night, breathing quickly and eyes darting around to make sure of her surroundings, and then eventually drifting off back into the nightmare.

When morning arrived, Toriel came in to wake her daughter before getting started with breakfast. Frisk sat drowsily in bed for a minute, in her pink striped blue pajamas, before waking up enough to actually realize she was awake. After eating breakfast (which consisted of pancakes) everyone did what little they needed to be ready for the hike back up the mountain, and the long walk afterwards. With everything they would need packed and ready to go, the "party" was off. None of those who were asked refused to join. Toriel and Asgore weren't actually asked, but they had been there when Frisk presented the idea, and had simply understood they were able to join. Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys accepted immediately upon being asked if they wanted to come. Sans on the other hand, gave Frisk a concerned look when she told him what was happening, to which she responded by telling Sans that she had not forgotten her promise. After hearing that, he figured he may as well tag along. Once everyone was ready and assembled at the mountain path, they began on the way up. Alphys and Asgore talked in the back of the group about plans, ideas, and work that might need doing while Undyne walked along next to them, occasionally cutting in to say something of her usual caliber. Papyrus was talking with Toriel towards the front about cooking and what she would be teaching him next. With "Goat-Mom" as a mentor, Papyrus actually was doing quite well when it came to the culinary arts. He had tried his hand at a whole new concept a few weeks ago… Lasagna. Okay, maybe not completely new, but it was a change of pace, and a quite tasty one at that. Sans was biding his time, waiting for the perfect time to interject into either group just to get a pun in. Frisk just walked along, thinking about all the happy things that life had presented during the time spent on the surface. It helped a bit, but she was still focused on her personal quest. When your SOUL is filled to the brim with Determination, and you've got a goal in mind, it's a bit more than difficult to stop thinking of that one thing. Toriel, having finished up a conversation about baking cakes with Papyrus, looked back to see Frisk, very deep in thought. She decided to try and find out what was weighing so heavily on Frisk's mind.

"My child?" Toriel called out as she slowed down to let Frisk catch up. "Frisk?" The worried boss-monster rested a hand on the human's head when she didn't respond, or give any inclination that she knew she was being talked to.

Frisk looked up as Toriel removed her hand. "Sorry Mom, I was thinking about something. What is it?"

Asking directly would probably not the best idea, as Frisk didn't explain what it was herself, and probably wouldn't open up quickly to clear investigation. So Toriel came up with a different approach. "I was just wondering how you came upon the idea of this event."

"Oh. Humans do it all the time. Usually on the day the deceased was born, or the day they passed, but they visit the grave to reminisce about the good times they had while alive, and to help keep them alive in their hearts." Frisk was very familiar with the practice.

"That seems odd, that humans believe that people continue living in their hearts after dying." At this point, Toriel felt that she might be getting somewhere.

"Well, they don't actually believe that their loved ones continue living this way. It's hard to explain exactly, but they 'quote-on-quote' live on through the memories and feelings shared between the people they loved during life."

Time to go in for the kill (figuratively, of course). "And do you have any memories or feelings that you wish to rekindle here?" Toriel had known something was up, ever since after the barrier had broken, Frisk had avoided talking about what happened between the appearance of the flower, and the moment when everyone woke up.

The young girl knew that she couldn't tell Toriel anything, or it might lead to disaster. But it was hard not to, especially since there was no way to give an answer without making a complete lie to give her mother. "…N-no, I had just figured that it would be nice to do this for them… and that you guys might see it as a good idea." Frisk looked to the left as she said this, unable to look Toriel in the eyes. She wasn't exactly the best of liars.

"I see…" Toriel was not fooled, in any measure, but figured it wasn't going to be pleasant if she pressed Frisk on the issue. "Well, if there's anything you want to talk about, I'm here." Having said that, she went to Sans, hoping for an answer there. Sans always seemed like he knew more than he let on, and call it intuition, but Toriel could feel that he knew something about this.

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Toriel would at best only get very cryptic half-answers from Sans. After a few minutes, Sans somehow seemed to shift the topic over to jokes in poetry. Toriel forgot about her inquiry, and became very invested in the new conversation.

After another half-hour of walking, the monsters (plus one human) had reached the entrance to the Underground. Here they stopped for a lunch break. Sandwiches were passed around, and Asgore heated tea for everyone. It was pretty good. Once the food had been consumed, the group gathered at the mouth of the cave, took a deep breath, and all stepped forward at the same time. It wasn't as bad as anyone had expected, just the crossing of a threshold. With their destination in mind, Asgore led the way through the New Home down to Hotland, and going straight across the path from Waterfall to reach the River. Standing on a very peculiar looking boat, with a cloak of deep blue covering all their features (except height of course), was the River Person. Some things never changed, and sometimes, that's a good thing. Or, at the very least, extremely convenient. The River Person asked to where the group would be headed.

"Snowdin please." Asgore replied, stepping onto the boat.

It had been decided that Asgore would go alone, as he took up almost the entire boat. Undyne and Alphys went next, chatting about some anime they had recently seen as they sped off down the River. When the boat came back to pick up Papyrus and Sans, it had a strange, dog-like head on the mast. Sans informed Papyrus the he had better hold on.

"To what and why, brother?"

Frisk laughed at the sudden yell of surprise from Papyrus as the boat floated up and frolicked quickly away. Lastly, the boat came back, without the dog mast sadly, to bring Toriel and Frisk along the River.

"Tra la la. Humans, Monsters… Flowers."

" _How fitting…"_ Frisk felt a pang of guilt at that line from the River Person, even though she knew that there was nothing she could have done to prevent the events of the past. She had tried everything.

Once everyone had reunited in Snowdin, it was just a short walk on to the Ruins. Upon reaching the Ruins, Toriel took the position at the head of the pack. Any conversation was done in a low whisper, for the talkers felt almost as though anything above that would cause a disturbance of some kind, or some disgrace. It wasn't long before the seven had found themselves looking upon the golden mound that sat atop Chara's grave. Just being here was enough to bring a mist to Toriel and Asgore's eyes, and tears were slowly but surely beginning to roll down from Frisk's. They all gathered near the column of light, but not too close. It was dead silent. Pretty soon, everyone but Sans (yes, even Undyne) had wiped away a tear or a few. Sans simply looked melancholically at the flowers. No one quite knew what to do, and Frisk never said anything. After a few minutes, Frisk pulled out her phone, and summoned the Dimensional Box B. She reached in and pulled out two beautiful white roses, and laid them in the center of the golden flowers. Afterwards, she looked up at Toriel and Asgore, and said that if they wished to say anything, this was the time.

"My children. I wish that neither of you had to leave us, and that you both could be here with us. We miss you." Toriel choked a little on the final three words, but she still said it in her strong, motherly fashion.

"My children." Asgore began in his deep voice. "I regret nothing more than what I had let happen to you. I still hold my love for the two of you, and hope that you can forgive me if you have not already. We miss you." Asgore turned away from the grave, finding it difficult to keep his composure. Undyne and Alphys were already there with him, trying to comfort the monster King and tell him it wasn't his fault.

After having said what needed to be said, the monsters all turned and began to walk away, hearts heavy with sadness. Frisk however, stayed behind. She looked into the ring of flowers surrounding the grave. There was one, which unlike all the others, had its "face" turned down, away from the shaft of light.

"Hey, kiddo. It's time to go." Sans called back, realizing that no one else noticed Frisk's statuesque behavior.

Frisk pulled out her phone one more, calling for Box A this time. When her hand came out, it held an object covered in cloth, which she placed in front of the grave. She then brought out two gleaming and golden heart-shaped lockets, and rested one on either side of the veiled offering. Then she turned and walked away with Sans, still crying as she did.

 **Flowey**

" _They're finally gone. I thought the idiots wouldn't ever leave."_ Flowey lifted his head and saw the lockets on the ground, as well as the covered item. He moved slowly towards the three. _"Why did she leave all this here? Well, if she doesn't want them, I may as well take them."_ Flowey laughed as he believed himself doing something against Frisk's wishes. He began to pick up one of the lockets, but his curiosity overcame him. _"What is under that cloth?"_ Flowey realized he smelled something. Something… familiar. Suddenly, he could no longer hold himself back. He tore the cloth from its place with his "teeth". What lay underneath shocked him to his core. Lying there, on a small paper plate, was a triangular wedge of Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie. It was still warm. Flowey, without even understanding what he was feeling, or why, began to cry.

* * *

 _Phew... that was a long one. The way I write these, I have an end in mind, then I come up with a start. Then I just write until I get to where I want. This one just so happened to take a while =^.^=. So, who cried at the end there? Even if it was only a little. I'm not sure whether it's because I actually wrote with the feels, or if it's 'cause I can be a bit of an emotional wreck sometimes (ask Az XD), but I cried writing the chapter. I hope you guys are liking the longer chapters, 'cause I think the next one might be long as well. I guess we'll see when I write it. Thanks for reading, and see you lovely people next chapter!_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	5. Chapter 5: Hope Only Goes so Far

_I'm so sorry for the super long wait between last chapter and this one. This chapter was just kinda in an odd spot, and I had difficulty thinking of what to write about. That coupled with school-work doesn't exactly make for quick writing. I'm still not 100% in with the eight-year jump, but it seemed like the best way to get to where I wanted, so... it works I guess. Just to clear up some confusion before reading, the first large area of italics is a flashback, the second is a dream. Now we get to the normally scheduled AN stuff. Thank you to my new followers, Imagining Creativity, The Toad Soldier, and SugarDream54. Not only that, but I have my first three favorites: The Toad Soldier, Imagining Creativity, and gamerman246. I'm so happy that all of you are enjoying this enough to follow, and some of you favorite even. Finally, thanks to Ringcaat for the reviews. Sappy stuff aside, time to read!_

* * *

 **Frisk**

" _I can't keep going like this."_ It had been eight years since leaving the Underground. Eight whole years, and not one time had Frisk come any single step closer to helping Asriel. She had so many feelings swirling though her mind: guilt, depression, and self-loathing, just to name a few. On top of it all, was a general sense of failure. Frisk had striven for one thing, and one thing alone. To save everyone. And she had failed. She didn't even care about the promise anymore. The human had given up on ideas about resetting and changing things a few years earlier. As hopeless as someone with her Determination could be, that's how she felt. Eventually, if this continued, Frisk would lose control of the timeline. And no one wanted that. _"What am I going to do? I've lived a little less than half my life like this. Far more than half if you count all the resets. I've felt more than once that it's not worth living anymore."_ That's putting it lightly. She'd hit the point where you want to act on that feeling a long time ago. There were two exceptions to the promise, both of which allowed only for short-term resets. The first, was if resetting was necessary for some reason (whether or not it was necessary, was decided together, between Frisk and Sans), like preventing injuries, or mistakes. The second was a little more grim, especially with events over the latter years. Short-terms resets were allowed for stopping preventable death and making sure it didn't happen. There wasn't much use for this, as there were no deaths among the monsters caused by outside forces. However, "wasn't much use" isn't the same as "was not a use". Frisk was fourteen the first time. Sans had walked into Frisk's room once after one of the annual visits, to ask how she was holding up. He found her with a rope around her neck, and the chair that usually resides at her desk, knocked over backwards under her. Sans immediately grabbed her SOUL and reset to the day before (Frisk makes SAVEs once every week). He wasn't happy.

 _ **Sans**_

" _Kid, let me tell you something. See all these monsters around you, the ones you call family?"_

 _Frisk couldn't bring herself to even look at Sans, let alone say anything in response._

" _How do you think they'd react to that? They've already experienced the death of two children or dealing with the fallout of those deaths, and one of them was suicide as well. They don't need any more of this, and personally, I'd prefer that you keep your SOUL to yourself as well."_

 _Frisk just sat there on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, shaking from the irregular breathing pattern of someone who was extremely upset. It wasn't dying that had her like this. Granted dying isn't exactly pleasant, but she'd experienced it before. This was a different situation. It was near enough to traumatizing having been brought back through a reset after suicide. She had been resigned and unhappy enough to put the rope around her neck, and kick the chair back. Now she felt like she had been dragged back into the thick of it, except with more guilt piled on top because she hadn't thought of the consequences of her death, and what it would bring to the monsters when they found her. She hated herself even more for having done this._

" _*sigh* Look, ki-… Frisk. This is not an answer. This is not a solution. It won't fix anything. You get that, right?"_

 _Frisk had stopped shaking, and picked her head up enough to nod slowly to Sans._

" _Good. And beyond that, you don't know that it won't get better. Who knows? Maybe something will come up. But for now, just understand that I won't let you go through with anything like this, and you shouldn't even let it come to that. Right?"_

 _Frisk didn't respond._

" _Well… as long as you understand that there is almost no worse decision to make than this, I'll be contented for now. Do you want me to tell Tori to give some space for a bit, or are you good?"_

" _I'll be alright in a minute." Frisk's voice was so soft and quiet, Sans almost couldn't hear her._

" _Are you sure?" Sans wasn't quite convinced, and for a good reason._

" _Yeah, I just need a bit to calm down." Frisk could still feel the noose around her neck._

" _If you say so…" Sans began to walk out, but stopped before he opened the door. "If you ever start to feel like this again, I'd prefer it if we talked before, and not after the fact. Ok?"_

 _Frisk had her face in her hands and didn't seem to hear him._

"Well, at least we can reset if it happens again. I'll have to keep a closer eye on her than before though." _Sans closed the door gently behind him, and went down to help with breakfast._

 **Frisk**

Frisk mindlessly toyed with the locket she wore while she thought. It was discovered at the next visit to the grave that Flowey took "his" locket, yet didn't so much as touch Chara's. Frisk was a little ahead of everyone else when she reached the grave, and decided to pick it up before anyone else noticed. After that, she had just kinda kept it. She kept all of the "artifacts" left by the humans who came before her, but she felt a strange attachment to the Heart Locket and the Worn Dagger. The locket, she ended up wearing, as it felt warm and comfortable hanging from her neck. The dagger however, she felt much safer with that hidden away somewhere Sans put it. It felt… alive almost and its weight felt perfect in her hand, and yet Frisk also felt numbed to emotion as well as terribly wrong when she held it. Sans didn't like it either, so that factored into her decision. Sans also didn't like the locket, but Frisk saw no harm in wearing it, and Sans didn't talk about why he looked at it the way he did. _"It's almost time for the next visit."_ It was in four days. She still hadn't stopped going, even with how bad it made her feel. This time, it was down to Frisk and Sans. None of the others were going. It made sense though. The monsters had their own way of dealing with death, and Frisk was fine with it. They all had a reason for not going one year, but never ended up taking the trip the next year. The third visit, Alphys was unable to go because she was working on plans for a new invention. The next, Toriel. She had business at the school she needed to take care of. Asgore went next. Then Undyne. Papyrus had stayed going with Frisk and Sans for an two more years after Undyne stopped going, but decided he would rather stay home this time. He apologized for being a terrible friend at least seven times, but Frisk assured him she understood. They were all just uncomfortable with going and seeing the grave. It wasn't something monsters had ever done. Sans said he would keep going as long as Frisk did, so that was something.

"I wonder how long that will last." Frisk voiced her thought out loud faintly.

Frisk decided to try and get some sleep before she thought her way all through until morning. She'd have more than enough time to sort through her thoughts and feelings in the next four days.

 **Sans**

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, staring down at the doorway "Frisk" would walk through any second now. Sure enough, the human began to walk into the Hall, eyes squinted for a brief moment from the brightness of the room. Then her eyes focused on Sans. They were entirely red, not one speck of Frisk's deep blue remained. Sans felt his anger rise as the… thing began its slow walk towards him. It stopped a little ways in front of him and waited. It remembered how this was supposed to go._

 _*heya._

 _*you've been busy, huh?_

 _*…_

 _*so, i've got a question for ya._

 _*do you think even the worst people can change…?_

 _It flashed a smile, and Sans decided he was done here._

" _Well, guess we're right back at square one in that case. Don't expect me to play 'fair' this time though."_

" _I wouldn't have it any other way." It responded, grinning._

 _Sans immediately began his first attack, as normal. But then, just as he was about to end it, he summoned an extra Gaster Blaster behind It and fired. It died instantly..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, staring down at the doorway "Frisk" would walk through any second now. Then, he realized that It was already standing there, hand outstretched towards a faint spark of light Sans could barely see. A bone shot from the wall, impaling It before it even turned to walk towards him. Sans watched as he made It pay for everything it had done. It died slower this time, blood slowly trickling from its lips and falling to the floor below..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, watching It as it backed tentatively away from the SAVE point. It called out to him from across the Hall._

" _So! This is what you meant! Maybe you'll actually entertain me this time! I wonder if this will be as fun as watching the life fade from your brother's eyes!"_

 _Sans touched a hand to the orange scarf around his neck and growled in anger. He raised his hand towards It and bones flew past him in an attempt to skewer the thing at the end of the Hall. It dodged out of the way, the same way Frisk dodged attacks, as if a part of some beautiful dance. Not a rehearsed dance, but a smooth, natural, and graceful movement of the body. It had anticipated this attack, and moved perfectly between the flying bones, the golden locket around Its neck reflecting the light coming from the Hall's windows as it whipped around. Not one bone hit._

" _You're going to have to try harder than that!"_

 _Sans sidestepped as a knife flew by his head, returning the attack by filling the hallway with Gaster Blasters and letting loose. It didn't have enough time to get behind one of the pillars. The lasers tore through Its body and through Frisk's SOUL like tissue paper..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, It died for the fifth time..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, Frisk's SOUL shattered for the thirty-seventh time..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall..._

...

...

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall. He had no idea how many times he'd been through this already. It came at him, flowing right out from a dodge and swiping at Sans with Its blade. Sans teleported away from the blow and pulled Frisk's SOUL down into the bones rising from the floor. Sans didn't even notice as the blood flew onto his face..._

 _He stopped caring a long time ago..._

 _Sans stood there in the Judgment Hall, waiting for this eternity to end. He realized with a start that he had made his final attack and fallen asleep, like always. Sans immediately leapt to the right as a twinkling knife came swishing through the air where he had been standing._

 _*heh, didja really think you would be abl-_

 ** _9999999_**

Sans woke up with a start, eye burning a furious blue as he sprung out of the bed. He looked around for a moment before realizing he was in his room and not the Judgment Hall, or Determination limbo. _"Heh, just a dream…"_ While it was in fact a dream, that was only partly true. It was also one of the Genocide timelines, played out exactly the same in the dream as when it had happened. Sans settled back under his blanket and closed his eyes. This wasn't anything new, or even the worst he had dealt with. Eventually, Sans would find sleep, or he'd sleep during the day. After an hour of laying there, trying to sleep, the skeleton decided that if he wasn't going to get sleep, he may as well make use of the time he had.

 **Frisk**

It was around three in the morning when a knock sounded on Frisk's door. Light, so as not to wake her if she was asleep, but loud enough to hear even in a drowsy state.

"You can come in Sans."

Sans opened the door, and pulled the desk chair up to the side of the bed and sat down.

"Heya kiddo. Can't sleep?"

"Yeah, there's just too much on my mind I guess. You?" Frisk already knew the answer to her question, but it was polite to ask.

"Same as always. Nightmares don't know when to quit."

"If you want to talk about them maybe that will help." Sans had at first just said he was never tired. After a while, he started to imply that he had issues with nightmares before he started talking openly about why he didn't sleep. He had yet to open up with what his bad dreams were about though, and Frisk was terribly curious.

"Nah, I don't want to trouble you with my pains. You've got enough of your own." Sans really, really did not want to risk jogging Frisk's memories, and he knew that his dreams were more than enough to do just that.

"I guess I can't force you to talk about them, although I really do think it might help."

"I'll be fine, what about you though? Think you'll be good for the trip?"

"There's no way I'll ever miss a visit, you know that."

"Yeah, I know... Well, I came in to check on you, and I have done my job so... guess I'm gonna head back to bed, see if I can catch I wink or two. You should do the same." With that, Sans stood up, and walked back out the room before teleporting to his and Pap's house.

Frisk stayed sitting up in her bed for a while, just thinking. She eventually started to feel really and truly tired and laid back and closed her eyes. When she did fall asleep, it was into a peaceful and dreamless rest. Nightmares did not come to her…

Not that night.

* * *

 _Yeah, this chapter is kinda depressing. It's also why I'm bumping the rating to T+. Just in case any of you were wondering about the part where Frisk could "lose control of the timeline", my theory about how Determination is as follows. Person has the "physical" Determination essence. That determines (get the joke? yes, I know it was bad) their max DT. You can go below your max DT by just not being y'know, Determined. Someone with a lower DT essence, but higher mental DT can take control of the timeline then. That sums it up. Again, I'm very sorry about the delay on this chapter. I don't plan on abandoning this story any time soon._

 _With love (not LOVE),_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	6. Chapter 6: Every Life can be SAVED

_I'm giving you all this warning now, this chapter is over 4000 words without the AN. So I'll keep this short. Thanks to AH14, SugarDream54, and Mermain123 for following. Also thank you to Mermain123 for being a double offender and adding this story as a favorite. Also, the ending AN is going to have something important in it, so you might not want to skip it._

* * *

 **Sans**

Sans got out of bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Today was the day. He grabbed his best jacket (by which I mean he has more than one of the same jacket, and he grabbed the one most recently washed) and got ready to go. Before he walked out, Papyrus told him to tell Frisk he was sorry for not coming with them.

"Ok Pap, but you do know she's already told you every other time you've apologized that she understands, right?" Literally every time, yet for some reason, Papyrus was still trying to apologize.

"Which is precisely why I'm having you tell her. This way, she can't tell me she understands; she has to accept the apology!" Papyrus punctuated his plan with his trademarked "Nyeh heh heh".

Sans sighed, nodded, and walked out, closing the door behind him.

 **Frisk**

Frisk woke up, still extremely tired. She hadn't been able to get much sleep the night prior. Frisk considered telling Sans that his nightmare issues were contagious when he arrived. She decided it was probably better just to leave him be. Today was going to be bad enough as is. After getting dressed, she went down to grab something to eat. Toriel was already there, waiting for Frisk to come down.

"Are you sure you wish to go through with this my child?" Toriel asked with worry in her voice and her eyes. She knew the effect these visits had on Frisk and had been thinking about trying to get the trips to stop. But Toriel also knew how much they meant to her daughter, and didn't want to force her to stop going.

"Yeah..." Frisk noticed Toriel's tone and the look in her eyes right after responding. "I'll be alright, there's no need to freak out over this." She tried to add a bit of a joking manner to her voice and body language towards the end with little success.

"If you say so." Having said her fill, Toriel walked off to prepare for school.

Frisk finished up her breakfast and walked out to meet up with Sans.

 **Sans**

When Frisk came out of her house, Sans was already there, leaning against the wall.

"Heya kid."

"Don't you think I'm a little old for you to be calling me 'kid' still?" Frisk was seventeen now, almost a "full-adult". Nevertheless, Sans didn't see it that way.

"You're younger than me aren't you? And granted you may have grown, but not that much."

"I'm taller than you." Which was true, but also wasn't much of an achievement. Sans was only about four feet and eleven inches tall, which was somewhere around five or six inches taller than Frisk was eight years ago.

"What about everyone else?" Granted, most of the other monsters were a little taller (if not more than a little) than average humans. However, Frisk was still short. She stood at five feet two inches tall.

"They don't count." Frisk crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and "hmph'd" at Sans.

"If they don't count, why do I count? What sets me apart from them?" At this point, Sans was just messing with Frisk.

"Because…" She was trying very hard to come up with a reason that wasn't something along the lines of I'm taller than you and not them. "Because you're the one I'm talking to."

"That makes perfect sense."

The two stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Then they started laughing a little. Once that had calmed a bit, Sans asked Frisk if she was ready to go.

"Ready physically? Yes. Am I mentally prepared? I think I'll be able to hold it together."

"Guess we should get moving then."

 **Frisk**

Frisk and Sans walked out into the forest a bit before Sans found them a "shortcut" up to the cliff on the mountainside. No one but Frisk knew about Sans' shortcuts, and he preferred it that way. Frisk could understand that, after all, no one but Sans and Flowey knew about the whole "turning back time" thing. Once they walked into the Underground, Sans asked if they would be meeting the Riverperson in Hotland or Waterfall.

"Neither."

Sans was a little taken aback at that. "What do you mean?"

"Well… the bridge that Undyne broke while she was chasing me… it's still there. I want to retrace my steps exactly. Once we get to the Trash Zone, we can take a shortcut to the bridge."

"With all the shortcuts we're taking, we still seem to be headed down the scenic route. What's up?" Sans could tell that Frisk was a little off. Or at least more off than normal.

"I… I don't know. As much as it won't feel right, I don't think I can do this anymore. This may be the last time we visit them. I want it to be special." Frisk could feel that something was different. She couldn't tell if it was all in her head, or if there was actually something out of the norm. She assumed that it was all in her head.

"If you say so kiddo." Sans decided that when they got to the Ruins, he needed to check something. Something very, very important.

The pair continued onwards, following Frisk's trail backwards through the Underground. It was almost like watching a movie on rewind. The memories had always stayed fresh and vivid in Frisk and Sans' minds. It wasn't exactly an experience you could forget, good or bad. They would point out things or places and say things like "Hey! Remember when…" or "Look at this, it's…". It kept Frisk's mind off of what was waiting at the end of the cavern. Even though they weren't actually riding the River with the Riverperson, the two still went to ask how things were going.

"Tra la la. The waters are wild today. That's good luck."

" _I hope so."_ Frisk was always curious about the Riverperson. Sadly, she didn't think she'd ever find answers to her questions. Frisk and Sans walked all the way back to the flowers sitting in the water before Sans took them to the bridge above. The trek through Waterfall was silent save for the sound of rushing water. It was soothing and allowed time for thought. Frisk idly thought about the past, and about all the times she had been through it all. While the atmosphere in Waterfall was calming, Frisk's thoughts and emotions were still as a storm. Sans was less thoughtful, and more worried. There were some things better left buried, and he needed to make sure they were still buried. In the room with the still crystallized cheese, Frisk did something that freaked Sans out a bit.

"Why do you have a bar of chocolate?" Sans hid his startled expression and kept his voice calm so as to not put Frisk on alert.

"I grabbed it before I ate breakfast. I figured I might want something to eat." Frisk said all this in between small bites.

"But why chocolate of all things?" Sans put a little bit of a laugh in his voice.

"I don't really know honestly. Chocolate is awesome though, especially dark chocolate." There was too much enthusiasm in the "awesome" for Sans to be comfortable with.

"Don't you think it's kinda odd to grab chocolate as a snack?"

"Hmmm… nah, not really. Why?" Frisk was wondering why Sans thought so much of this. He ate sweets all the time.

"Eh, I guess you're right."

Probably the second least satisfying answer Frisk had ever gotten out of Sans. He knew she was curious, but she knew that if Sans didn't want to talk about something, chances were that it wasn't going to be talked about. The conversation ended there.

 **Sans**

" _Ok, I really need to get to my lab. First the locket, now chocolate? What now? Is she gonna turn around and stab me in the gut while her eyes slowly turn red? No, no thanks. I don't want any."_ Sans was kind of having an internal crisis while Frisk finished up the chocolate. Eventually, they reached the door to the Ruins.

"I'll meet you there in a bit kid. Like I said, I gotta check up on something."

"Alright. Although… if you don't want to be there, I understand." Frisk sounded sad.

"Nah, I'll be there. I just have to be right back." With that, Sans turned and started walking back towards Snowdin Town. He checked all the traps he had set up on his way back. _"Good, we're all prepared. Let's hope there's nothing to be prepared for."_ Sans actually RAN to his secret room behind his and Papyrus' old house once he got out of view. As soon as he entered, he began to flip switches and hit buttons on a control board in front of a huge monitor on the wall. The screen immediately lit up, and big red text flashed various messages:

DT SCAN SYSTEM RUNNING CHECKUP…

HOTLAND SCANNERS OPERATIONAL

WATERFALL SCANNERS OPERATIONAL

SNOWDIN SCANNERS OPERATIONAL

RUINS SCANNERS OPERATIONAL

COMMENCING SCANS…

HOTLAND CLEAR

WATERFALL CLEAR

ONE PING FOUND IN SNOWDIN

DT LEVELS LOW

TIMELINE THREAT MINIMAL

NO ACTION REQUIRED

Sans was used to hearing that, so he just tuned it out.

TWO PINGS FOUND IN RUINS

FIRST PING LEVEL IS HIGH

SOUL ID CHUCKLES

TIMELINE THREAT POSSIBLITY HIGH

VIGILANCE IS ADVISED

That would be the flower.

SECOND PING LEVEL IS EXTREME

SOUL ID FRISK

TIMELINE THREAT MAXIMUM

THREAT MUST BE IMMEDIATELY CORRECTED OR NUETRALIZED

NO FURTHER PINGS FOUND

COMMENCING LIGHT BACKGROUND SCAN EVERY FIVE MINUTES

Sans breathed a deep sigh of relief. He knew the scanner could find It. He'd tested it before. After the system found It the first time, he reprogrammed it to be able to find the specific SOUL signature attached to Its Determination. It may no longer have a SOUL, but that doesn't mean It won't have traces that could be found. Sans sat back in his swivel chair, deep in thought. He waited there, just thinking and letting the system run its scans for a long time before realizing that Frisk was probably waiting on him. As he got up, a noise from the system stole his attention. More red text had appeared, and he did not like what it said, not one bit. Sans dashed out of his lab, locked the door and took a shortcut to the hallway near the grave…

ALERT!

DT LEVELS OF SOUL ID FRISK RISING RAPIDLY

STAGE FOUR DT EVENT COMMENCING

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

...

 **Frisk**

Sans seemed quite upset as he walked away from the doorway to the Ruins. Frisk figured it probably had something to do with whatever it was he needed to check on. Normally, she would go see what was wrong, but she decided to instead continue on her way. _"Whatever it is, he says he's fine. I'll just have to trust him on that."_ Frisk walked through the Ruins, reminiscing about all the times she had been here before. Most of all, she thought of the last time she had talked to Asriel, just before she left with everyone in the current timeline. _"It was years ago, and yet it seems that it only happened yesterday."_ These thoughts brought with them feelings of guilt, sadness, helplessness, and failure. It was a wonder that Frisk made it to the end of the Ruins without a tissue. Once she arrived, she stood staring at the flowers atop Chara's grave, stewing silently in her own thoughts. After a minute or two, Frisk laid down next to the flowers and looked towards the hole in the cave roof, lost in her own mind, riding out the torture of the internal tempest of emotions and feelings…

 **Flowey**

It had been ten minutes, and she still hadn't moved from her spot on the ground. _"I'll get her to leave, maybe she won't come back anymore after."_ Flowey approached Frisk, and as he did, he initiated a fight. Frisk's SOUL slowly rose an inch or so off from her chest, glowing bright red. She did not even appear to notice. _"Well, you asked for it."_ Little white "Friendliness Pellets" appeared around the flower's "head". They would have an effect anywhere, but he aimed for Frisk's SOUL. It'd work better hitting there. The first pellet struck. No response. The second. Nothing. When the third hit, Frisk's face showed a small sign of pain, but she still did not budge. Flowey saw that this wasn't going anywhere, and decided to stop. _"No sense in hurting her if she's just going to let herself die."_ He went back to his spot amongst the flower ring around the center. He sat there and watched. For a while, Frisk stayed in her same, almost comatose state, doing nothing but breathing and blinking occasionally. But eventually, Frisk sat up.

"Finally! I've waiting forever for you to move. Now go, there's no reason for you to be here." Flowey wanted Frisk to leave badly. Whenever he saw her, he felt… something. He didn't like to feel because the moment it stopped, he had to get used to the emptiness again.

Frisk realized she had been attacked as her SOUL slowly faded back into her. "Was that you? What made you stop? You could have killed me right then and taken my SOUL." She actually sounded surprised.

"Ha! You think that's all I think about, don't you? You idiot, I know if I killed you, you'd just reset. Then Mr. 'Smiley' would be upset with me." He left out the part where he didn't want to hurt her anymore. He knew he'd done enough already.

"Is that so? Hmm…" Frisk was out of it again, except this time, she was staring straight at Flowey. He wanted to move, but felt pinned down by her gaze.

A few minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, then all of a sudden, Frisk's eyes widened, and she was back in the world.

"I know what it is now! How could I have been so STUPID!?"

"What are you talking about?" Flowey was genuinely surprised.

"I've felt it every single freaking time I've walked into this room! And I've only just now realized what it was!"

"What what is?! What. Are. You. Talking. About." She still wasn't hearing him it seemed.

"You've changed, right? Ever since my first visit with the Pie and the Lockets, you've felt things. You've also been feeling physical changes, like you began to age again, am I correct?" Flowey was honestly starting to believe Frisk had gone mad. She was right though.

"Yes, but why is this important? Why does it matter if I can… if I can… feel… Wait, are you saying…?" He had begun to catch on.

"I remember this exact feeling, not only from every time I visited, but from then, when we fought. This is the EXACT same thing I felt before I reached out to your SOUL and SAVED it!"

"Are you trying to say what I think you are? That my SOUL is… is here, somewhere?" Flowey was having issues comprehending the current situation.

"It has to be, I can feel it. Maybe after our fight, it never left. Maybe, it never moved on."

"But how?! My SOUL has no Determination."

"Your SOUL has as much as any monster's. But, your SOUL is connected to your body. And what do you have?"

Flowey opened his mouth to respond, but could not think of anything to say.

"It is here, I know it." Frisk was Determined, he could feel it. It was as strong as or even stronger than during either of their battles. For what reason, he had no idea.

"What does it matter if it's here? So what, my SOUL is stuck here, big deal." Pessimism came naturally as a defense against being let down by failed Hopes and Dreams.

"If it's here, I can reach out to it, just as before. And if I can reach out to it with enough Determination, maybe I can do something…" Frisk trailed off as she thought.

"How much is enough?"

"I have no idea. But maybe we have enough between the two of us. Allow me to use your Determination, please, I need to try this."

Flowey didn't want to get his hopes up, just to have them shattered.

…

He also didn't want to remain like this forever.

"Please Flowey, if this works, I can fix everything. I can save everyone, even you."

"…"

"Please"

"*sigh* ok."

 **Frisk**

That was all he needed to do. Once he was willing to do this, she could use their combined Determination. He had to be willing to try though, or it would not work. She knew this from a previous timeline where she had really attempted to change things, and Sans needed her to willingly allow him to use her DT to fix the timeline.

"Thank you."

The two connected through their DT, just as Frisk remembered how to do, and Frisk could feel the extra DT added on top of her own mountain that she felt now. With all of this, she reached out, the same as she had little over eight years ago. She could feel it, Asriel's SOUL. Instead of merely connecting with it and conveying her feelings to SAVE his SOUL, she connected with it, and held on with all the power her SOUL had. She would not let go for the world right now. Frisk could feel his SOUL. It was weak and afraid. He had no clue about what was happening; only that some outside force was holding him in its "hand" able to crush in on him at any moment. She used the link she created to send soothing and calming feelings. His SOUL would not survive being pulled back in its current state. After his consciousness had calmed down, she mended the tears in his SOUL with her own. She would have given up everything she had to save him, if that was required. Asriel's SOUL stabilized, and Frisk waited a minute. She realized she was scared herself. If this went wrong, or didn't turn out the way she intended, things would be worse than before. _"I have to do this, I have to try. I'm not going to give up now, I've come so far. I'm too Determined to give up hope. Things will be right again."_

Frisk began trying to bring Asriel's SOUL back. She started by gently tugging on the bond between them, so as not to accidentally cause damage. He resisted at first and began to panic, but Frisk lulled him back into a more docile state. As she continued, Frisk gradually began to pull with more and more force. It seemed like ages passed as she strained her SOUL close to and at her limits. In the world, Flowey only sat there, able to feel but not interact with what Frisk was doing. Her SOUL burned blindingly with Determination and hope. Frisk was almost there, she could feel it. She gave everything she had to pulling on what felt like a boulder big enough to fill up the entrance to the Underground. In one final effort, Frisk drained every last drop of strength her SOUL held, and used it to pull Asriel into life. A moment later, she felt it happen, like tying a cord around an object, and pulling. You pulled until the object moved, the cord snaps, or both. Frisk only felt a movement, nothing more. She opened her eyes only to realize all she saw was a narrow tunnel looking up towards the cave ceiling, darkness closing in on her sight…

 **Asriel**

Asriel Dreemurr opened his eyes for the first time in over eight years. He immediately squeezed them shut again. The shaft of light was blindingly bright against his now sensitive green eyes. He heard a noise, and then a voice.

"FRISK! What are you doi-" it cut off halfway through the last word.

Asriel tried to talk, but he was too weak, and no sound would come. His tiredness overcame him, and he passed out.

…

Asriel woke up and found that he could (if he kept them squinted) open his eyes. He looked at his surroundings slowly from his laying position. He could see above him the hole on the cavern roof, he could see Chara's grave beside him. But a little ways in front of the doorway was Sans, sitting with his legs crossed. He held Frisk's upper body across his lap, and her head rested on his arm. Frisk's SOUL was extremely faintly glowing red, and pulsed like a weak, dying heartbeat every so often. Memory came flooding back to Asriel. He remembered leaving his body, but not being able to leave the world, the endless nightmare of his limbo and the pain of his broken SOUL. He remembered Frisk reaching out to him, healing his wounds, and bringing him back. He could still feel the raw SOUL power and energy she had poured into this effort. Asriel realized that what she did probably killed her at the very least, and likely erased her SOUL from existence or drained it of all her Determination. If she was dead, or died in her current state, there would be no undoing it, even if he were to reset. She'd be gone forever. He found that with effort, he could speak.

"S-Sans…" It wasn't easy.

"Shhh, you need to rest for a minute kid. You're not in full operating condition quite yet."

"Fri-Frisk…" Sans realized what he wanted then.

"Frisk? Yeah, she somehow managed to do it. She's not dead, if that's what you're thinking. Her SOUL is in absolutely terrible shape though. I don't know if she will… let's just say she sacrificed a lot for you. Rest up and don't waste this." Sans sounded crushed and defeated. He didn't seem to think Frisk would make it. There were streams of tears coming from his eyes.

Asriel could still feel the bond between the two of them. He hadn't noticed it before. He could feel how Frisk's SOUL was. As bad as he had ever been during any of this, she was in a state twenty times worse. It wouldn't be long before… _"No, I won't let that happen."_ Asriel turned over and crawled over to Sans.

"Kid, look, there's nothing you can do. Just rest and hope you'll be fine. We can go get Alphys later and try to-"

Asriel picked up Frisk's hand and concentrated. He focused on the connection between his SOUL and hers. After a moment, color returned bit by bit to Frisk's SOUL, and the pulsing grew a little stronger and more regular. Asriel fell back, eyes closed, unable to move. He did hear Sans say that he would be right back with help now that Frisk wasn't in as immediate danger. Asriel fell slowly back into unconsciousness…

 **?**

After a while, the skeleton and the yellow lizard came to take Asriel and Frisk away. They seemed to disappear as if by teleportation. It was an odd feeling, being back here. I had been away for so long… It felt decidedly good though. I began to look around. Then I saw them. Two wonderful white roses, sitting atop the mound in the center of the light. I reached out a "hand" (I, being an entity without form at the time, merely sent a piece of my existence towards it, not a physical hand, so to speak) towards one of them. To my delight, it began to turn blood-red, as if someone poured red ink in its water and the petals soaked in the color. Then, I began to think, and to plan for the future…

* * *

 _I feel really good about this chapter, no clue why though. Also, I finally beat you guys. I set my next view milestone for 1000 and you guys didn't manage to beat that in one chapter (you came pretty freaking close though, 918 views). Now, for the actually important stuff. I realized about halfway through this chapter that some of you might not be able to read my mind, and have a complete understanding of my head-canon (I know, weird right?). So, i have found a solution. I am interested in creating a "companion story" to go along with this one. By this I mean I want to make a Q &A. This idea actually came from one of my follower/favorite's own followed/favorited story/author. If this is you, please give a shout out to that author in the reviews. So basically how it will work, is you guys ask me questions in the reviews or through my email or something, and I respond in the next chapter. You can also ask/interact with characters from my story, and they will respond ('cause we all know they're probably more interesting than I am). If a few people say yes to this idea, I am totally doing it, so please give me your opinions any way possible. Thanks for giving me your time. _

_With Determination this time,_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_

 _PS: =^.^=_


	7. Chapter 7: The Bond

_First thing I need to say is that I am very very sorry for the long delay on this chapter. I never intended to wait this long on writing this one, and certainly not this long on posting it. Lot's of things have been happening for me recently, and that's all kinda gotten in the way of my writing. Back to our regularly scheduled AN, thanks to Mr. jal, KaidaShi, dream1990, and Kalmarin for following. Also thanks to all of you excepting dream (I still love you anyway for following dream =^.^=) for adding this to your favorites. I can't promise I'll be more regular with my updates in the future, but I will try my hardest not to let this happen again, sorry guys._

* * *

 **Sans**

"Kid, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, whatever it is you did, Frisk isn't dying anymore. Well, not as quickly, at least. I'm going to go get help, I'll be right back. Don't budge." _"Not that he could if he wanted to."_ Sans was a little more shaken up than he realized. When he took a shortcut to Alphys' basement, Sans almost materialized directly inside of her equipment lying in the corner of the room.

"WOAH! Ok Sans! Deep breaths in… and out… everything is going to be just fine. Not like anyone you care about is on death's doorstep or anything." He was having some difficulty calming down, to say the least.

The door to the basement opened, admitting one yellow, almost dinosaur-ish monster.

"Wh-what's goin- Sans?! What are you doing here? How did you get here? Where's Frisk? Why do you look like you've seen a-" Sans cut Alphys off in the middle of her question.

"Alphys, listen. I need your help." Sans grabbed Alphys' arm at the wrist and got prepared to jump back to his previous location.

"What do you mean? Sans, what do you need my- what just happened?! How'd we get here? Can you teleport Sans?" Alphys was having a bit of an odd day.

"Just help me get them out of here, and back to your lab. I can explain everything there." Sans walked into the next room.

"Them? Who's the other?" Alphys answered her own question just one moment afterwards. "How is he here?! Why are they like this?! Sans, why does Frisk's SOUL look like someone tried to drain it?!"

"Just pick up Frisk, I've got this one." Sans didn't want to risk "shortcutting" the two into the floor, and he couldn't carry them both (he also didn't even want to try levitating them with the current state of their SOULs), hence why Alphys was here.

Once Alphys had Frisk off the ground, Sans touched his elbow to Alphys' arm, and brought them back to her basement. He was relieved to see that they had all made it back successfully.

"OK! Now that we're back… What the HELL is going on?!" Alphys was a little shaken up with the current state of things.

"You'll learn everything in a minute. First, I need to know if they're going to survive, and if not, how we can make it so that they will." That was all Sans was focused on. He knew Toriel would probably kill him if anything happened to Frisk, and he wasn't exactly indifferent when it came to the kiddo's life.

"Fine, bring them into that room. I keep most of my diagnostic equipment in there." Alphys gestured to a door opposite from the stairs to the rest of the house.

Sans brought Frisk in first. The room was larger than he expected. It was a lot like the Bedroom in the True Lab. There were fewer beds though. _"I guess Alphy didn't expect to be doing any more large scale experimentation."_ He set Frisk down on one of the beds closest to the door. When he brought Asriel in, Sans had him one bed over.

Alphys was already busy hooking up the instruments and equipment she would need. Sans recognized most of the devices she was using, but not all. He may have been a part of research on SOULs in the past, but he gave that up a long time ago.

"Is there anything else you need me to do?" Sans didn't want to just stand there awkwardly as Alphys got to work.

"I should be alright, thanks."

"I'll be waiting outside then, no reason for me to be here if there's nothing I can do." Sans opened the door back to the main basement, walked out, and sat down next to the door.

Suddenly, the door was opened rather forcefully. _"Oh no."_

"Hey Alphys, what's with all the-… Sans?" Undyne looked a bit confused, most likely on how and why Sans was in her basement.

"Hi Undyne, what's up?"

"Just wondering what's going on. And how you're here."

"Why? Something smell fishy? If so, it's probably you." Sans was doing what he does best.

"I've heard that one before. And yes, something does smell fishy. What's all the yelling about?" Undyne wasn't even fazed.

"Just some project Alphys is working on. She wants my help but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do."

"She didn't sound happy. How are things going?"

"Pretty well actually. She's just working herself down to the bone, that's all." Sans was trying his best to distract Undyne. He was pretty sure it was working.

"Is she now? Think I'll be able to help?" Ok, so maybe Sans wasn't so sure about that.

"Nah, she's just doing some 'sciency' stuff. No kelp required."

"That one was a stretch and you know it." Undyne was smirking though. "Well, if she doesn't need any help, I'm going to go watch something. Tell her I can do anything if she needs it."

" _That was close."_ Sans was very relieved to see Undyne go back upstairs. Now that he was alone, his thoughts returned to the two this mess he found himself so tangled in came from. _"You better not have gone and gotten yourself killed for him kiddo."_

"How am I going to explain this to Toriel?"

Sans waited for an hour while Alphys ran her tests. It was just when Sans started to doze off when Alphys came out and gave him the results.

"Sans?"

"I'm awake, what took so long Alphy?"

"The tests were m-more complicated than I had an-anticipated."

"What do you mean?" Sans was immediately more worried than before. _"She's started her stuttering. That's not a good sign."_

"W-well… Th-there's the good news. A-and the b-bad news."

"Good news first." At this point, Sans just needed to hear some good news.

"W-well… they're both g-going to live. I-it'll take some t-time, but Asriel's S-SOUL is recovering."

"And Frisk?" Sans definitely picked up on the fact that Alphys had made no mention of Frisk's SOUL.

"Umm… well, y-you see, Frisk's SOUL i-is not changing. F-for better or w-worse. Asriel w-will wake up in a f-few d-days. I don't kn-know if Frisk will ever w-wake up." Alphys was trying to stay calm. She wasn't doing such a good job.

" _Damnit Frisk! Why'd you have to go and do this?!"_ Sans drew a deep breath… and released it. "… Is there anything else?"

"Th-there is, a-actually. I don't know i-if it's good or bad, b-but I have hope. There s-seems to be some s-sort of a connection b-between their SOULs now. M-maybe, if I h-have more t-time to study it, when Asriel f-fully recovers, we can u-use it to h-help Frisk. B-but there's also the ch-chance it may n-negatively affect Asriel."

"We'll try to be optimistic here and call it a glimmer of hope. You should keep looking into it. Other than that though, all we can do is watch and wait." Sans hoped that they could find some way to just make it all better, fix the whole thing. _"That's not how life works though, and I know that better than anyone. You have to fight for what you want, and maybe you'll find what you need."_

"Y-yeah, I'll continue t-to check the b-bond." Sans was going to have to help Alphys through this, or at least help keep her from worrying other people.

"It's the best we can do right now. Don't worry Alphy; everything is going to work out alright. I think we should take some time before we tell anyone about this though, especially about Him. We need to be careful and plan out how we explain it all."

"Th-that makes sense, but umm… is-isn't T-Toriel expecting F-Frisk home soon?"

Sans gave Alphys a reassuring smile "Don't worry, I'll handle it."

…

" _Toriel's not gonna like finding out her daughter is in a coma."_

…

" _And I just volunteered to be the one to tell her."_

…

" _Crap."_

 **Asriel**

Asriel found himself lying under the blankets of a soft bed when he woke up. _"I need to quit passing out. There's no way this can be good for you."_ He raised himself into a sitting position. It was harder than he expected, but Asriel managed. Once he had his back against the pillows at the head of the bed, he examined the rest of the room. It was pretty small, and it had nothing in it besides the bed, him, a mirror on the wall the bed faced, and a chair. It seemed like an unused guest room or something along those lines. Now that his surroundings had been identified, Asriel noticed he felt strange. Like he was empty, or missing something. He didn't get much time to think about this, as the door opened quickly afterwards. Sans came walking in with a phone to his "ear" as he talked.

"Yeah, his condition hasn't seemed to change all that much, but-"

That was when he noticed Asriel.

"Hey, I'll call you back Alphy, he's awake."

Sans hung up, and put the phone in his jacket pocket. Then, he walked over to the chair by the bed and took a seat.

"Heya kid. How're ya feeling?" He said this pretty calmly, which surprised Asriel a little.

"Uh… tired I guess?" Asriel realized that it was out of his mouth this voice came, and was shocked. _"I don't remember my voice being this deep… wait… that's right, I began to age as a flower when my SOUL got trapped after my battle with Frisk. I guess it makes sense that it would transfer over."_

"Even after this long a nap? Actually, I can't blame ya. After all you've been through; I'd sleep for a year. How about the essentials? Want something to drink or eat?"

The empty feeling made more sense once Asriel remembered that eating was a thing he needed to do now. When he thought about it, food seemed an amazing idea.

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks."

"Alrighty then, I'll get right back to you in a minute." Having found himself something to do other than sit there awkwardly, Sans went to grab some food.

It didn't take too long for him to return with a plate of cinnamon buns and a glass of orange juice. Asriel's stomach growled at the sight of sustenance. He hadn't eaten for long, long time.

"Here ya go kid. Sounds like ya needed it more than you let on." Sans smirked at that comment.

Asriel laughed a little back as he ate. "Maybe you should try my diet. A few centuries without food and you'd be a little hungry too." It felt so good to be alive again!

"Hey, listen here kid. I'm not fat, just big-boned."

Asriel grinned. The last time he had been this happy, was far more than a little while ago.

"How is everyone handling the fact that I'm back?" He had guessed that Sans would have given everyone the news.

"Umm… about that… Alphys and I, we uh… decided it would be better to keep that information from public ears until we had taken time to think on how to tell everyone, and you were well enough to be there yourself." Sans wasn't sure how he thought the kid would take hearing that.

"Oh… I can see why you would do that. We can tell them now though, right?"

"I still think we might wanna wait a little longer kid, just to be safe."

"*sigh* alright… wait, what about Frisk? How's she doing? Is she ok?"

Before Sans could respond Asriel heard a knock on a door away from the room he was in.

"Let me answer that." Sans dashed from the room and closed the door.

Asriel (with great effort) stood up and walked unsteadily to place his head against the door. He could hear what was going on in the room behind it pretty well, if a little muffled.

"Oh, heya Tori. How's it goin'?

"Sans…"

"Yes?"

"Please, I only wish to know what happened. Why is she like this?" Asriel's mother sounded upset.

"Tori, I'm sorry, I really am. I can't give you the details yet. Just know that Alphys is working on a way to help her. If Alphys has just a little more time, why, the kiddo will be up and about just fine."

"I understand that you and Alphys are trying to fix what happened, but spare me the waiting. Why is Frisk in a coma?"

Asriel had already begun to guess at what they were talking about. Even having eaten, he still felt strange and absent. When Toriel said that last bit, Asriel put two and two together. _"It's my fault. She did it for me."_

"What reason is there to keep this from me? Why can't you tell me?"

"Look, Tori, I just can't. I promise, and you know I don't make promises lightly, that the moment I can tell you, you'll know everything there is to know, ok?"

Asriel turned the knob on the door, and took a few steps forward.

"I'm why she's not waking up. It's my fault." Asriel brought himself to look his mother in her eyes.

They were wide in disbelief and shock.

"I… Asriel?" She walked towards him, and reached out a hand to his cheek. "How are you…? This isn't possible. You can't be real." There were tears running down her face.

"I am Mom." His voice was cracked with tears of his own. Asriel held Toriel's hand against his cheek with his hand. "Frisk brought me back. She couldn't leave me behind." He was crying too now. "I'm really here."

"How did she…?" She stopped there, and pulled Asriel into a hug so tight he almost couldn't breathe. Toriel wasn't letting going to let her son go again (figuratively, not literally). Eventually, she freed him from her embrace. As happy as she was to see her son again, it didn't change the fact that Frisk was still in a coma. "Now" she glared at Sans after the now (probably for not telling her) "Can you tell me what happened?"

"*sigh* well, I guess it went better than we expected. And yes, I can fill you in." Sans explained everything to Toriel, not just what happened four days ago. Well, everything but the resets. He explained Flowey, the battle between Frisk and Asriel, the events before leaving the Underground, and everything which came after.

"I was out for four days? Geez." Somehow, that seemed the strangest part to Asriel at the moment.

"You coulda been out for way more kid."

"Well, regardless of how long I was out, there's someone who still is. And it's because of me." Asriel was giving himself a bit of a hard time for Frisk's decision.

Sans tried to lift his spirits. "Maybe so kid, but you might also be what fixes it."

Toriel caught on quickly. "Didn't you say something about a 'bond' between their SOULs Sans? Wouldn't that be of any use?"

"That's what Alphy and I are lookin' into. For now though, he should rest up. Who knows? Maybe if his SOUL fully recovers, Frisk's may begin to as well."

At that moment, Papyrus burst in through the still open doorway, panting as if he ran all the way across town.

"SANS! I WAS RECENTLY INFORMED THAT TORIEL IS- oh, she's already here. Well, I still faithfully performed my duty as requested, so I consider this a job well done! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus walked up the stairs to his room and shut himself in. They could hear him yelling enthusiastically about how "outstandingly in shape" (as he put it) he is for being able to run all the way across the town in less than a minute without taking a break.

"Well…" Toriel was the first to recover from that "That was odd. Why did he do that exactly?"

"I set him up as the 'sentry'. He was supposed to let me know if someone was coming. I guess he got sidetracked by something." Sans shrugged at that last bit. "As I was saying though, Asriel, you're still recovering, despite what you may think. And we still need to do more research on the connection between you and Frisk before we make any decisions on what to do with you two. It'd probably best for you to take a few days off."

"What about everyone else? What about Dad? Shouldn't they all know I'm back?" Asriel didn't want to lie in a bed for a few days while nothing happened.

"If Sans and Alphys believe you should rest my child, then I am in agreement with them. We can organize something when you are more ready." Toriel knew when someone else knew what was best.

"If you guys think it will help, I guess it's for the best." Asriel said that a little sullenly, like a child waking up on Christmas morning only to be told it was too early to open presents.

Sans and Toriel helped Asriel, who was still dizzy and unsteady on his feet, back to the guest room in Sans' house. As he lay down on the bed, he realized how tired he still felt. When he closed his eyes, Asriel almost immediately fell asleep. His dreams were of happy possibilities, and of the life he had been given back.

Unfortunately, his dreams did not mirror those from across the bond...

* * *

 _I'll be the first to admit it, I'm not the best at making puns. However, I found this amazing thing that I can use. It's called a third main character. I no longer have to write from Sans' point of view as often, so you guys don't have to suffer through my actually terrible puns (not just Sans' normal brand of terrible). (Anyone who read this before I changed it, sorry for the whole section on feedback. I realized it sounded mean and like a demand, and so I removed it.) Love you guys and see you all next chapter!_

 _With [insert something suitable here],_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	8. Chapter 8: Reunion

_Well... it's been a while. Not as long as the other chapter, but long anyways. I'm glad you guys are all still here. It makes me happy to know that you're all still reading, and waiting on the next part. Thanks to Mennene for following after the last chapter. And thanks to all of you in general. Now, without further ado, Chapter Eight awaits._

* * *

 _ **Frisk**_

"Why am I doing this? _" Frisk had no answer to that question, only the memories of the monsters she had slain, crying out for help, for a savior, for release… for MERCY. She wanted it to stop, but she couldn't. It was like she had no control over herself. It was terrifying. Through her own eyes, Frisk watched, powerless to stop the slaughter. Her clothes were stained with blood and a light powder covered her from head to toe. She had killed so many, and why, she did not know. She couldn't even force herself to cry for those she mercilessly murdered. She thought herself wretched and evil, a creature not deserving of the gift of life. A real monster. Not the friends and family she had ended the lives of to follow through with her genocide. Not the kind-hearted and innocent people whose only wish was to live happily, and to escape this cage. She was something far different from them, a terrible being. And the worst part, she couldn't even die. As she fought Undyne, she had died more than once, but her Determination kept her going. She had tried to reset it all, to start over and end this nightmare. She simply could not do it. It was like there was a barrier against any means of fighting this. There were no options. Frisk didn't try to stop as much anymore. It was a fruitless task. Nothing worked._

" _Kiddo, I know you're in there. You can fight It, you can beat It. Just don't give up."_

 _Frisk smiled at Sans._

" _Fight what? I do this of my own free will. Don't make the mistake of believing anything different." She punctuated the sentence with a strike at Sans. He teleported away and threw a bone at her. She dodged and got speared by one that had appeared behind her. Sans came closer as she lay there dying._

" _I'm sorry kiddo." Two Gaster Blasters appeared above his head "Please, forgive me…"_

…

 _Frisk commanded her feet to stay planted. She danced out of the way of the laser. Frisk made her fingers drop the knife. She threw it at Sans. Frisk struggled against this desire with everything she had. She kept on fighting, intent on killing her friend. There was nothing she could do. She was hopelessly trying to stop the inevitable._

…

 _The end was nearing. Death after death, she was getting further and further. Closer to the one moment she had been dreading this whole time. She would do it again. She had done it before._

…

 _She felt it. She could feel the EXP and the LOVE she gained. More than that, Frisk could feel Sans' death. Her body began to move forwards, trying to finish her task. She refused. She walked out of the Judgment Hall, away from the Throne Room._

…

 _She stumbled her way through Snowdin, fighting every second to keep from turning around. Somehow, there was a blizzard raging through the town. The cold hadn't bothered her before; her LOVE was too high at the time. But she had fought against it, and it was leaving her, bit by bit. She had taken her shoes off in Hotland against her own will, which she assumed was in an attempt to keep her from walking back. Her feet were burned and cut up, and now should couldn't feel them. She couldn't feel much of anything now. Just the cold. It was so very cold. She fell down before Papyrus and Sans' house, crying. She almost let herself die there from the hypothermia. Frisk forced herself up and walked on. She came to the doors of Grillby's place. Luckily, the door handle didn't need to be turned or anything and all she needed to do was pull them open. She almost couldn't do that. She didn't bother to close out the cold when she entered. On the right-most stool at the counter, and the floor around it, there was a pile of dust. Next to the stool, a bottle of ketchup was spilling the remaining contents towards the jukebox in the corner. Frisk tried to walk to the stool, but fell over before reaching it. She cupped some of the dust from the floor in her hands and looked at it, unable to turn away. She sat there, denying that it could be true, that she had done all this. Her tears rolled of her cheeks full of dust, and fell into her hands. She let the dust spill from her hands onto the floor and curled up on her side, sobbing. And there… she died. Alone, in the cold, with nothing but the remains of everyone she loved._

…

Frisk woke up in a dark place, unable to move. She could hear voices, but they seemed muffled, as if they were coming from a room nearby.

"Hey kiddo! Can ya hear me? It's Sans… *sigh* even though she's been improving, I guess she's still not back yet."

"D-don't worry Sans, her SOUL is r-returning to strength, it can't be much l-longer. She's been t-tossing and turning, so sh-she has to be getting close."

"Frisk? It's all just a bad dream, my child. Please, come back to us."

"Hey punk! That wasn't a request… that was an ORDER! Wake up at once or face the consequences!"

"Undyne, I don't believe the human will respond well to being yelled at…"

Frisk heard a thumping noise, like heavy footsteps.

"I made tea for everyone, and a special one for Frisk. I know she can't drink it, but the smell is supposed to give strength. There are also sandwiches downstairs; I thought everyone might be hungry, it being lunchtime."

There were sighs, and a shuffling a feet. Everyone must have left. Then, she felt her hand move and heard a new voice speak, closer and clearer than the others, but also whispered. It was faintly familiar.

"Frisk, I don't think you can hear me, but for what it's worth, we miss you. I miss you. Everyone's been doing their best to keep things going like normal, but we're all worried. Come back soon, please…"

A minute or so later, Sans' voice returned.

"Hey, kid, you should come get something to eat. You can't live on just air; it's as bad for her as for you. We can check back on her later."

"…"

"Come on kid. What good will it do her if you waste away? Even if she does wake up?"

"Alright."

Frisk felt her hand fall back onto the bed. She mustered the strength to open her eyes and saw Asriel turn away as Sans walked out the door. She reached out and grabbed Asriel's hand weakly. He turned, eyes wide open.

"Frisk?" His eyes started to water.

Frisk tried to pull him closer, but she couldn't. He understood though and knelt down next to the bed. She tried to talk, but realizing that no noise, let alone words, would come, she hugged Asriel as tightly as she could. She was running the waterworks too (crying, I mean). He hugged back, but carefully, he didn't want to hurt her after all.

"You coming kid?" Sans poked his head inside to see the two. The corners of his mouth lifted in a great big smile. "Hey kiddo, welcome back."

Asriel freed himself and stepped back, blushing slightly. Sans came up to the bed and ruffled Frisk's hair.

"Guess you must be tougher than I thought, I thought you'd never join the party. Well, actually I thou- oof." Frisk hugged Sans too.

He gave a rich laugh at that. "I guess you're stronger than I thought too! This is great! Asriel, can you go get everyone else? I'm a little… 'tied up' at the moment." Sans was trapped, with no escape.

Asriel nodded and ran out the room, calling for everyone to come back upstairs. In a few moments, the room was as crowded as before, with everyone trying to make sure Frisk was ok all at the same time. Everyone got hugs, even Undyne, though she protested, talking about how hugs were for "all of you wimps".

"I guess you're a wimp too now Undyne. Join the fun!" Frisk had regained her voice by then.

It appeared that someone outside had gotten wind of the situation. Soon, the house was crowded with monsters who were coming to see the human awake and, more importantly, not dying. There wasn't a single monster that didn't show up. Someone even found a pool to bring Onionsan to the window.

It was as happy a day as monster-kind had ever seen. The son they believed to have lost forever had returned, and their worries of losing Frisk had been assuaged. Asgore declared that as soon as Frisk recovered enough, there would be a great celebration. As excited as everyone was, Alphys had Toriel clear the room so she could bring in what she needed to make sure Frisk would be here to stay.

"Awww… We didn't even get to chat…" Monster Kid (admittedly, not really a kid anymore) reluctantly ran off.

"Alright, everyone means every-" Toriel began before being interrupted by a loud crash. Undyne peered out the window to where the noise came from.

"I'm good! Nobody worry about me! Act like nothing even happened!" They could hear MK from outside.

"… alright… well, we should let Alphys do what she needs, then Frisk needs to get some rest."

The others nodded in agreement and moved back downstairs. Alphys came in with a small machine on wheels… and engaged a fight?

"D-don't worry, it's easier this way, since you're conscious. It would be harder to bring your SOUL out without more equipment, and as long as I'm c-careful, nothing should go wrong."

Frisk's SOUL floated gently up. Its light was quite a bit dimmer than usual, and it was less red. Alphys put on some strange looking goggles and held up a clear tablet. When she looked at the SOUL, lights on the goggles flared up, and text and charts appeared on the other side of the tablet. The words were too small for Frisk to read from her position, even had they not been backwards.

"Things are coming a-along pretty well. Your SOUL is stabilizing, and its repair is actually continuing at a quicker rate than most, probably due to all your Determination. I've never actually thought about it, but you have far more than the most Determined of all the other human SOULs, more even than F-flowey once I gave him all that I could."

"I'm glad that I do, or I wouldn't have been able to bring Asriel back." Frisk hadn't ever told Alphys about the resets, and she had never found out herself, so she still kept quiet about that around Alphys.

"Well, that aside, I'm glad you had so much because it helped you pull through." Alphys was smiling, happy to know she didn't need to disappoint anyone with bad news, and that she got to keep a great friend. "Oh, I should probably tell you…"

"Hmm? Tell me what?"

"There is something that you should probably know about. It's the Bond. At least, that's what I've started calling it. Can you feel anything now? Anything out of the ordinary? It won't be felt through your senses, more through your SOUL."

Frisk gave a confused look, then realized she did feel something. She closed her eyes and concentrated on it. Her SOUL pulsed a few times. "I feel… a warmth is the best way I can describe it. And a sort of pull. Nothing uncomfortable, but just a faint tug towards… it's moving?"

"I can't really describe this very well, but the warmth is a SOUL. Specifically, the one yours is Bonded to. From what I've gathered already, the tug should fade with time, becoming merely a sense of direction or location. It's towards that SOUL, if you hadn't already guessed." Alphys was intentionally leading Frisk on without telling her who it was. "Also, physical distance does seem to affect the Bond in certain ways. You should feel stronger when closer together."

"How and to whom am I-" The door opened. "… You know, I should have been able to guess."

Asriel came in with a sandwich on a plate and a cup of water. The plate he set down on the bed. "You explained it to her?"

"To the best of my ability. Well, I'll be downstairs if either of you two needs me. If you have any questions, he can probably tell you more than me." Alphys turned to walk out, and then stopped. "Oh, and by the way. As far as I can tell, the Bond isn't finished developing. So be sure to fill me in on anything new you notice. I'm quite interested in this, and you two will be far better than any of my machines for learning new information about it. So… that should be it. Get well soon!" Alphys headed out of the room and closed the door.

"She's right, physical distance does have an effect." Frisk had felt it as soon as Asriel had starting moving closer.

"I know… its weird right? This is all so strange, but it's not bad, so…" Asriel clearly felt a little awkward talking about the Bond.

"If having your SOUL connected to mine isn't bad… then by the process of elimination, it must be pretty good, right?" She gave Asriel a grin. It had been a while since the last time Frisk had practiced her "art". She figured it might be a good idea to shake of the rust now.

Asriel took a moment to think about that, then his face went red. "I mean… it's not… I… you choose now of all the times to flirt?!"

"I don't see why not." Frisk was having difficulty holding in the laughter. _"He's so innocent! It's just too adorable to see him flustered like this!"_

"Is this going to be a regular thing?" He was calming back down now.

"If it was regular, you'd start to expect it. I can't have that, now can I?" Frisk gave him a wink.

"…" Asriel gave Frisk as serious a look as he could.

Frisk burst into laughter. "I'm sorry; I just couldn't hold it in!"

Asriel started laughing too. "I guess it is a little funny."

 **Asriel**

After a while of talking (and eating in Frisk's case), Asriel could feel Frisk getting tired.

"I should probably get going. You're gonna need some rest, trust me."

Before he could get up, Frisk stopped him with her arm. "Don't go just yet."

Asriel laid back down. "Why not?"

"I want to know something. *yawn* and you probably can give me the best answer."

"Ok, but just one question. Then it's nap time."

"Alright. I had always wondered, what was it like before Chara fell into the Underground?"

" _Chara… if only…"_ "Well, it was peaceful. Everyone was happy to some measure, but we were all feeling our confinement a little too well. It got pretty claustrophobic at times. People were always worried. They were worried about things like cave-ins, or running out of water, things like that. Monsters had only been down there for a two or three generations before I was born, and not everything was as well set up as it was during your time in the Underground. But, above all the worry, the fear, and even the depression, there was still hope. In the back of everyone's minds, we all knew that, eventually, someone would find a way out. Monsters would be free again. Shortly after was when Chara fell. She became the symbol of our hopes. The human who would free the monsters. The Angel from the prophecy. That hope that we had kept from the beginning was what kept everyone going. It's the reason we never gave up. When Chara died… when I died, it was the end of that hope for a lot of the monsters. And, well… you know the rest. It's amazing that even through everything, we're all here. Well, almost all of us…"

Asriel looked at Frisk. Her eyes were closed and her head was leaned on his shoulder. She was breathing deeply to a slow rhythm. There was a soft smile to her mouth. _"She's so peaceful… it's hard to believe that a lot of what Sans helped me remember even happened…"_ He closed his eyes. A memory came to him. One he preferred not remembering. He could still almost feel the knife blade. Granted, he was a flower at the time, but that didn't make it any less traumatizing. _"I should go now, while she can't stop me."_ Asriel took extreme care to disturb Frisk as little as possible when getting off the bed. As he walked out, he felt… wrong. He checked back on Frisk, but nothing was different there. _"I must be imagining it. The Bond is weird in the first place, after all."_ Asriel walked out and closed the door quietly.

* * *

 _This is an oddity. This chapter actually ended on a happy note. When was the last time that happened? OK, I have a challenge for you guys. The first person to write in the reviews the name of the bond and the book series the bond is from that I modeled Frisk and Asriel's Bond after gets a shoutout in the next AN, and a super secret prize. If no one gets it before the next chapter, there will be more clues in the next one. No one will be penalized for incorrect guesses, just don't flood the reviews with a ton of guesses. At least wait for me to respond in PMs. With this I now end this AN. Good luck to everyone interested in my challenge, and I will see you next chapter._

 _With Gratitude,_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	9. Chapter 9: Happier Days

_Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. I'll explain why it was such a large gap in the ending AN. For now, here are the new additions to the favorites and followers (thank all of you so much!):  
_

 _Follows - RememberPastGlory, Dissemination, XxEchoFrostxX, TheAngelOfSin, and Chaotus._

 _Favorites - RememberPastGlory, XxEchoFrostxX, TheAngelOfSin, and SouichiroBaeza_

* * *

 **Asriel**

The two weeks it took Frisk to recover were… odd, at least for Asriel. While it was pretty normal, aside from Frisk not really being around a lot (she was sleeping most of the time), there were a few oddities. There was actually work being done, for one. People were preparing for the celebration ahead, now that a date had been established. Turns out, it was kinda just going to be a huge party. Which would be fun. Another thing is that Asriel could feel a constant drain of sorts. He knew what is was, and why it was happening, but that didn't make it any less strange. Getting ten hours of sleep and a cup of coffee is supposed to keep you from being tired. _"I guess being tired is sort of unavoidable when your SOUL is giving its energy to fix another one."_ It wasn't too bad, and Asriel was more than willing to keep it up. And it did stop eventually, which was a relief. It's one thing to be told your friend would live, and another for them to actually come out of it alive. Something else that struck Asriel as a little off, was Sans' almost complete absence. He was almost never around, and when asked about where he went or what he was doing, he'd dodge the question. When Frisk left the house after being cooped up for so long though, Sans was there. It was nice to see how much he cared. He disappeared a lot less after that. There was little for Asriel to do in preparation for the party, so he just talked with Frisk most of the time. Even though her SOUL was back to normal, she still had some rehab to do. _"You can't just sit around all day every day and expect your body to stay the same, so it makes sense."_ They would go on walks around town or through the forest a lot. There was this large pond off through the forest, just a little ways away from the lake and river which gave water to the town. It was a nice and peaceful slice of the world, and Asriel figured that it wasn't too far for him to take Frisk to see it.

"Woah, this is pretty steep Azzy." Frisk had started calling him Az or Azzy recently. He didn't really understand why, but he didn't mind. It was actually kind of nice.

The path to the pond was laid along a high ridge with far drops on either side. Asriel had almost fallen down once before while looking over the dizzying heights.

"Yeah, just be careful… Don't stand so close to the edge!" Frisk had walked right over to the side, and was peering over.

She looked back at him, grinned, and kept looking.

Asriel threw up his hands in exasperation and walked over. "If you fall, I-"

Frisk made a save point behind them, on the middle of the path. "If I fall, we're fine. I just want to see."

"*sigh* You probably shouldn't be doing that just yet, we don't know what might happen." Asriel was worried about the possibilities. "Come on, let's-"

"Shh! Look!" Frisk pointed out into the trees and got low, as if to hide from sight. Asriel did the same.

"What are you… oh…?" Asriel hushed his voice so that he wouldn't disturb anything.

There were three deer walking along through the forest, a mother and her two fawns. They had been far enough off that Asriel and Frisk hadn't scared them with their talking (they weren't being very loud), but they were closer now. As the two watched the deer, Asriel could feel happiness and content from Frisk through the Bond (they had recently developed the ability to feel each other's emotions, which was strange at times, but they got used to it). He had thought he understood Frisk's philosophy of pacifism previously, but now he knew where they differed. They both held kindness in their hearts, and refused to harm or kill, but Frisk's time above ground had shown her something Asriel couldn't see as easily in the Underground. _"Life has its own beauty, more than the pretty flowers or the brightly colored animals. The concept of Life itself is beautiful, and it would be wrong to take that away from something or someone."_

"Wow… this is amazing…"

"Yeah…"

Once the deer passed out of view, the pair stood back up, and stayed there for a minute or two, thinking heavily. Once the moment had passed, Asriel remembered why they were here in the first place.

"We should keep going if we want to be back before dinner." Asriel still wanted to get to the pond.

"Yeah, Mom will go crazy if we're late."

Eventually, they reached the pond. The water was crystal clear, making it easy to see everything living in the pond.

"You were right, this is pretty cool. Maybe it'd be a nice place for a swim." Frisk was looking out across the water.

"A swim?"

"Yeah, you know, just swimming out in the water for a while. It's clean, so no real worries about that. And there aren't large fish that might come try to eat our toes or something." Frisk smiled while she looked off into the distance.

"Is submersing yourselves in water a thing humans do for fun?"

"Well… yeah. I figured you guys probably did it too."

"There might be some monsters that do, but I uh… I don't really like getting wet, other than showering." Asriel was scratching the back of his neck and trying to hide a blush.

"Why?" Frisk put on a teasing voice. "Are you afraid of water?"

"No! Not at all! It's just… I get… umm… 'poofy' when my fur dries." There was no hiding it now.

"You get poofy?"

"Yeah, my fur poofs up... it's kind of embarrassing."

The mental image Frisk was getting was far too hilarious. She started to laugh.

"What? What's so funny?" Asriel was trying to be upset, but he started laughing too, partly from his own self, and also because of the Bond.

"Whenever we get the chance, you are so going to come and swim. I have to see this 'poof'."

They spent a few minutes talking and joking around before they had to get on their way back. The sun was starting to set when they got back.

"Dinner isn't quite ready yet. You two still have some time left." Toriel was actually barely started with dinner, which was surprising, as she normally kept a very tight schedule.

"Hey, come on, follow me." Frisk grabbed Asriel's hand and went up into the attic.

"Why are we up here?" Asriel was kinda confused.

"This isn't our stop." Frisk opened a window that looked out into the town and climbed out.

" _Is she crazy?!"_ "Frisk! What are you doing?!" Asriel called out through the window.

"Come on Az! Join me up here!"

" _Yes, she is crazy."_ Asriel climbed out the window and onto the roof. Frisk was sitting up there, with a big smile. She patted on the roof next to her.

"You get a nice view from here." Asriel crawled over very carefully and sat down.

"You showed me the pond. Now it's my turn to show you something." She looked out over the trees.

"What is-" When Asriel looked in the same direction, he could see the sunset perfectly framed by the clouds and the trees. The sky was a wonderful orange, and the clouds looked pink.

They remained there, watching the sun go down until there was just a faint light from over the treetops in the distance.

"With all the time I've had above ground, I've still never lost appreciation for a view like that." Frisk turned to Asriel. "How was it?"

Asriel hadn't taken the time to watch the sun rise or fall in the month he'd been awake. It was such a sight that he was still seeing it imprinted in his mind. _"My first sunset…"_

"Asriel?"

"Oh, sorry."

"That good, huh?"

"Yeah. I have no words that can describe how I feel."

"That's alright, I can feel it myself." Frisk gave Asriel a smug smile and scootched up next to him. "It's a little cold up here. Think you can keep us both warm?"

Asriel looked at Frisk for a moment _"Was that just flirting, or…?"_ "Hmmm… I should be able to, I mean, having fur kinda turns you into a heating unit."

Frisk laughed at that, and leaned into Asriel. Her small weight felt rather nice, fit snugly against the side of his chest and shoulder. _"It'd be nice to sit up here forever, just sharing the moment…"_ He could feel Frisk felt the same. Her eyes were closed, which was somewhat a shame. Asriel thought her eyes were beautiful. Asriel closed his eyes too. They stayed this way for a minute or two, then…

"Heya kiddo, I don't think Tori would appreciate you being up here." There was a voice behind them. It was chuckling too.

"Sans! Don't surprise us like that!" Frisk jolted up as soon as Sans started talking. Her face was turning bright red.

"How long have you been there?" Asriel's face was going red too.

"Only a minute or two. I didn't want to… 'end the moment' prematurely. Tori sent me to find you two and let you know dinner's good to go." Sans was smiling.

"Well, I guess we should get down now…" Frisk got up and started walking over to the side of the roof.

"Let me give you a hand there kiddo." Sans put his hand on Frisk's shoulder, and teleported away. Asriel heard footsteps in the attic. He reappeared a few seconds later.

Asriel stood up and walked over to Sans. "Wait, you thought I was coming back to…? Ha, she's not in the shape to climb back in, but it'd be good exercise for you!"

"You're joking, right?" Asriel was hoping the answer was yes.

"Of course I am. But before we go, you need to know something." Sans' face turned serious.

"Yes?"

"Kid… you take one step outta line with her, and you're gonna have a bad time." Sans looked Asriel dead in the eyes. Sans' eyes were gone, leaving only the sockets. It was like staring into the void.

Asriel froze solid.

Sans shifted back to his regular self and his eyes returned. "Come on kid, let's get down there." He was smiling.

Asriel relaxed, but only slightly. Soon enough, they were back in the attic.

"What took you guys so long?" Frisk had her head ever so slightly tilted in her usual inquisitive manner.

"We were just talking about stuff. Don't worry about it kiddo."

Once the trio went downstairs, Sans left them to go back to his house. It was already late, so after they ate, Asriel and Frisk went to bed.

 **Sans**

Sans walked back into Toriel's house after an hour or so. She was sitting in her chair in front of the fireplace, reading. When he sat down on the sofa, she closed her book and asked, "So… what's the news?"

"I can guarantee it is one-hundred percent a thing. The ship is sailing strong." Toriel laughed when Sans said that.

"That's a funny way of phrasing it. Do I need to keep an eye on them?"

"Nah, I got that covered. I'll let you know if things get 'out of hand'."

The two sat there silently for a second, then burst into laughter.

"Out of hand?"

"Yes, out of hand."

They stayed up talking for a while into the night. Eventually, Sans left (for real this time), and Toriel went to bed. There was a party to get ready for, after all.

* * *

 _Aren't happy chapter a nice change of pace? I'm enjoying writing these. The reason this one took forever to get put up (I had it written fully a half a week ago) is because I was asking all my friends whether or not it was too soon to start the "romance" (quotation marks because it hasn't really started completely yet). I was actually not going to introduce it yet, but I wrote the beginning of the roof scene and realized I had accidentally set it up perfectly. I just kinda rolled with it from there. Other than that, the only other important thing is that the contest about finding the origins to the Bond continues. If the series is not guessed before next chapter, I will give a huge hint in the ending AN. That should about do it for this chapter, see you guys around!_

 _With confidence,_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	10. Chapter 10: What is Left Behind

_It feels so good to finally post a chapter after so long a hiatus. I'm extremely sorry for the wait, but things have been a little rough for me, and that's not even counting school. I did make this chapter longer (partly because I owe it to all of you wonderful people, and partly because this chapter needed to be a bit longer), so there's some sort of consolation I guess... :/  
_

 _Regardless, the chapter is here, and I am appreciative of everyone who waited patiently for me to get my lazy butt in gear. So thanks to all of you for sticking around. Next chapter will be coming around a week, I promise. I'm going to quit my ramblings for now, see you in a bit!_

* * *

 **Sans**

When the day of the Fall Festival (as many monsters had begun to call it, as this would be an annual celebration) approached, Sans was a little less enthusiastic than most believed him to be. He had been in and out of his labs, moving equipment, upgrading devices, preparing sensors, and fine-tuning range amplifiers the whole time while Frisk was recovering. The little signs here and there were too much for him to overlook, he was on high-alert. _"Gotta find this thing before It gets the chance to do anything… But what am I going to do when I find It?"_ Sans decided the best place to find answers would be from an expert on the subject.

"So, any ideas floating around in your head?" Sans was hoping that he'd get something easy or at least with a high chance of success. But of course, it couldn't be that easy, could it?

Grillby sighed and continued to clean the glass in his hand. "Sans, my area of research was in SOUL combat. The what, how, and why of things that go on when SOULs fought. If It doesn't have a SOUL, It goes beyond my knowledge."

"There has to be something you can think of. Even with our different areas of study, we all had connecting points. Anything you can remember about studying Determination?"

"Nothing that would give us way to fight it directly. I suppose we could drain Frisk's SOUL, but who knows if what we give back to her still contains some of It? I can and will give you my help, but this isn't something I know a lot about. You probably know more than anyone, not only for your experience with It, but since you studied Determination alongside Him directly."

"I'd prefer not to think about Him…"

The minute after was filled with a silence. It was way after hours, and everyone had vacated the bar/restaurant a while ago. The only light came from lamps on the door, and Grillby.

"Well… I'll figure something out I guess. If you come up with anything, give me a yell, alright?" Sans stood up from his chair and turned to leave.

"Sans?"

Sans stopped and turned. "Hmm?"

"Did you ever think this would be the product of it all? I don't mean our situation specifically, but of all of us who survived, why did it turn out as it did?"

"I've thought on that long and hard. I don't think it's something we can understand at the time, and maybe we'll never understand it. But, to tell you the truth, it's been a real blessing to be like this. And at least there's no 'real' downside to it."

"… I see. Well, good night old friend. And do try to sleep at least a little tonight."

"Ok, see ya around."

" _A little bit of sleep could get us all killed for all I know."_ Sans went straight to his laboratory in Snowdin. His sensors had just finished recalibrations to account for the new range extensions and high-detail scanners. Once he entered the room, he took his jacket off and threw it onto the chair in front of the keyboard. _"Well, let's give this baby a spin."_ He turned on the scanners and waited for the first messages to appear.

CONNECTING TO RANGE AMPLIFIER BEACONS…

PROCESS COMPLETE

COMMENCING FULL DETAIL SCANS…

ONE PING IN THE UNDERGROUND…

LIGHT PING EMINATING FROM SNOWDIN…

SOUL ID…

A male voice with an ever so slight British accent came from the speaker on the panel. "OH… HELLO SIR. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO REMOVE YOUR DETERMINATION SIGNATURES FROM THE SCAN RESULTS NEXT RECALIBRATION?"

"Nah, it might be useful sometime in the future, but thanks anyways." Sans now had an AI butler in his scanner. It was his favorite new feature.

CONTINUING SCANS…

"I'LL BE DIVIDING THE OVERWORLD SCANS INTO THREE PARTS: AROUND MT. EBOTT, ABOVE HOME AND ITS SURROUNDING AREA, AND LAST, THE LONG RANGE SCANS. IS THAT SUITABLE?"

"Yeah, that'll do just fine." Sans was almost laughing at this. For some reason, he found it hilarious.

The text saying "CONTINUING SCANS" was still up for a minute or two, then the message changed.

SCANS COMPLETE

"THE SCAN OF MT. EBOTT SHOWS NO SIGNS OF DETERMINATION. NO REASON TO GIVE FURTHER ANALYSIS. THE TOWN SHOWS THREE DISTINCT PINGS, ONE OF WHICH IS STRANGE. THE LONG RANGE SCANS SHOW ONE UNIDENTIFIED PING. DETERMINATION LEVELS ARE LOWER THAN FRISK'S, BUT STILL REGISTER AS THE SECOND HIGHEST LEVEL. IT'S IMPERATIVE WE FIND OUT WHO THAT IS. BACK TO THE TOWN SCANS HOWEVER. THE SMALLEST PING IS FROM GRILLBY. THE NEXT IS 'PRINCE FLUFFYBUNS' AS YOU HAVE HIM REGISTERED IN MY DATABANKS… THE LAST IS FRISK. THIS ONE IS OBSCURED IN SOME WAY. I CANNOT GET EXACT INFORMATION ON DETERMINATION LEVELS."

" _Trying to hide it seems. I've got your number you-"_ "Is that everything?"

"YES. I WILL GO INTO SLEEP MODE NOW, UNLESS OF COURSE YOU HAVE ANOTHER TASK YOU WANT ME TO COMPLETE."

"No, you're good."

The screen flashed one last message "GOOD NIGHT" before powering down. Sans let out a deep breath he didn't realize he had been holding in. _"This is bad."_

 **Asriel**

The celebration was quite extravagant. Although, with all the time and work put into preparing for it, that was somewhat to be expected. While the Sun was out, there were games, dances, a lunch break, and much more. Once the sun began to set, everyone gathered at the highest point of the hill in the town as best they could - some needed ladders or tall chairs as one might see at a parade to see – to watch as it went down, and to look up at the stars when the Sun's light had finally dissipated. Afterwards, there was the matter of dinner to settle. It was shortly after eight o'clock and getting very dark when the food was exhausted. That's when the spotlights and lasers turned on. Mettaton had been eagerly awaiting this moment it seemed. As fun as it had been up until now, it was about to step up a notch or three, especially since most of the younger monsters had been shepherded off to bed by their parents not too long ago. Asriel was caught up in the moment when his attention shifted from the concert to his mother when she tapped his shoulder.

"Hmm? What's wrong?" He almost had to for Toriel to hear him.

"Nothing quite, it's just that the music is a little too loud for my tastes, so I will be back at the house if you need me."

"Alright." Asriel could understand that, although, part of the fun was the volume.

Toriel stopped in the middle of walking away, and came back for a moment. "Oh, and by the way, or BTW as Papyrus told me it is said in text, you need to find Frisk and get a bit further from the stage. You two don't want to ruin your ears after all." She departed having given her Royal Decree, smiling and chuckling softly.

Asriel stood there, aghast at the fact that he actually wasn't allowed to be too close to the stage. Grudgingly, he took a moment to find where Frisk was before heading towards her. He couldn't see her, but he could tell she was towards the front of the crowd, just by feeling the Bond. Their sense of one another had grown slightly more acute. She was moving in a way that could be safely assumed as dancing as it was quite in tune with the beat of the music. Asriel had always thought Frisk had a beautiful manner of dance, even though it almost didn't seem like dance. It certainly wasn't anything like the organized dances taught in a school. It was much more natural. When Asriel asked about it she shrugged and said she had never really thought about it too much, but that it probably came from practicing dodging so much. He could also tell that as happy as she was, she was burying sadder emotions. By the time Asriel had actually reached Frisk, the music was so loud that he could barely hear himself talking, and only got her attention through the same tactics used by Toriel.

"Hey! What's up?!" Asriel could only understand her through reading her lips. And only barely at that.

"Mom wants us to move back a bit!"

"What?! I can't hear you!"

Asriel figured that at that point, it'd probably just be better to get her to follow him away so they could talk. He waved his hand at her and headed out of the tight crowd as best as he could manage. Luckily, the fact that they were who they were helped them make their way through the people. When they finally estranged themselves from the crowd, Asriel gave Frisk the bad news.

"Aww… That's no fun." Frisk wasn't too enthusiastic about the "restraining order".

"Yeah… but, we can still hear it pretty well, so it's not that bad."

"I guess." Frisk looked sullenly towards the ground.

Asriel found himself still wondering about what he had felt while looking for Frisk. _"Asking won't hurt, and maybe it'll help."_ He waited for a song to end before he started talking.

"So… is everything alright? You feel upset." Asriel blushed a bit. It was still a little awkward talking about being able to feel each others' emotions.

"…" Frisk continued to look at the ground, without saying a word. Her expression changed slightly, and Asriel felt a pang of negative emotions.

"It's alright if you're not comfortable talking about it, I just want to make sure you're ok."

Frisk looked up at the stars, and Asriel could have sworn he saw their light glittering off a tear on her face. "*sigh* no, if I should tell anyone about stuff like this, it should be you. You sure you want to hear?"

"Yes, anything if I can help in some way."

"Ok… well… since leaving the Underground nine years ago, I've had nightmares that would come and go. Most nights I'd be fine, but I use the word 'most' lightly. It's hard to judge how often they came. They were about things like leaving people behind, letting everyone down, not being able to SAVE them." Frisk was staring right through Asriel, as if she were lost in recollection.

"So you have nightmares formed from guilt about not being able to SAVE me? Well, you did in the end, so just make sure you remember that. And that I'm here for you, we all are."

"That's not it…"

"Oh…?" Asriel didn't like the way that sounded.

"The nightmares I used to have stopped when I brought you back. The thing is, I have new ones, and they're far worse. It's like one of the timelines, only… instead of giving MERCY, and SAVING everyone… I…" Frisk stopped for a moment, as if unable to continue. "I… kill… everyone. Every last monster, hunted like animals, no matter how they hide or how they fight. Froggit, Woshua, Muffet, Undyne, Papyrus, Sans… even Mom. I create a massacre. They come every night, unfailingly. What makes it even worse is that they're so real. Even when I wake up, I remember every last horrible detail. The look on everyone's faces, the weight of the Knife, and the Dust. So many lives, turned to nothing but Dust. Everyone I care about. It's…" Frisk had already started crying, but now she was choking up. Asriel pulled her into a tight hug.

"Shhh, it's alright." Asriel did his best to soothe her. "No matter how real it seems, just remember, it's all a dream." _"She doesn't remember the Genocide timelines… I need to talk to Sans."_ Asriel was a little surprised that Sans didn't tell her, but he did understand. "Look, everyone is here, alive and well. I'm real, not the dreams. None of it is real, not even a little." Asriel winced slightly at the lie, but Frisk didn't notice.

She eventually calmed down a bit, and Asriel loosened his arms so that he could look her in the eyes. "They're just nightmares, right?" He received a nod. "So just try to remember that. It's not real, and it can't change reality, right?" Another nod. "Hopefully that will help. If you want to talk it out, I'm always willing to listen." After a few minutes, the two stepped apart.

"So… do you want to stay out, or go home? I'll leave it up to you." Asriel had noticed a marginal improvement in what he was feeling from Frisk compared to before. _"That was like getting hit by a truck. Well, a truck going unbelievably fast. This is much better."_

"I want to stay; I heard there's going to be a massive fireworks show. No way am I going to miss that." Frisk smiled at Asriel "And thanks. For making me feel better."

Asriel blushed.

The two sat down and enjoyed the concert for a while. Mettaton was going all out when, suddenly, he announced that he was "graciously allowing a fledgling ensemble to give a change of pace to a…" Mettaton paused for effect, "…lesser showing." The second band stepped up onto the stage. It was comprised of three skeletons: one wearing mainly purple (who was decidedly flashier in both appearance and in showing off than even MTT), one wearing orange with a glowing blue clock hung on his chest, and one wearing green. Rather than look upset at the clear insult from MTT, the trio merely smiled and requested he move off stage so they could begin. They were amazing. Their music was a mix of real instruments with techno sounds. And the words fit perfectly with the mood. Most of their songs were melancholic or happy-sounding with sadder undertones. MTT didn't look very happy with all the attention they were getting. He tried to get them to leave, but since they wouldn't go, and the crowd wanted them to stay, they ended up having a competition.

Somewhere in the middle of the contest, Sans joined Asriel and Frisk.

"You two enjoying the new guys?"

"Yeah, they're awesome!" Frisk was pretty enthusiastic about it.

"I didn't think anyone could manage showing Mettaton up like that… and get away with it for this long for that matter." Asriel was attempting to appear nonchalant. He had heard that it was cool from someone.

"Yup, they're definitely good. I didn't think they'd try pulling a stunt like this when I asked them to show up though. Though I guess it is something C would enjoy doing. And I don't mind seeing Mettaton blow a fuse like that."

Asriel and Frisk jumped up and responded to that in unison.

"You know them?!"

"Mhm… you're not allowed to ask how though."

"How doesn't matter, can you get us their music?!" Frisk was really enjoying the performance, to say the least.

"Hmm… I dunno kiddo, that's asking a lot."

"Pleeeaaase?"

"Eh, you know what; I'll see what I can do, but only because you asked so nicely." Sans grinned at Frisk.

"Thanks! You're the best!" Frisk gave Sans a hug before settling back down close to Asriel.

"Welp, I got stuff I need to do, so I'll be off. See ya 'round kiddo." Sans walked away, but when Asriel turned around, Sans looked back and gave him a wink and a grin.

"Hey… I gotta go ask him something, I'll be right back." Asriel stood up and looked at Frisk.

"Alright… Why do you look so serious though?" Frisk made a small laugh when she saw the look on Asriel's face.

"It's nothing that important."

"I if you say so I guess. Just remember though, this thing works both ways. If you're there for me, I'm here for you, got it?" She smiled.

"I'll never forget it."

"Ok… you may want to go now though, who knows if you'll find him once you've lost him."

Asriel laughed at the jest. "Good point, see you in a minute."

"Bye."

Asriel had to run to catch up with Sans. Once he did though, the skeleton looked a little confused.

"Heya kid, what's the matter?"

"You haven't told her?"

"I haven't told her wha-… Oh, yeah, and I don't plan to." Sans crossed his arms. "I don't plan on letting you tell her either."

"Trust me, I've seen the fallout from her having dreams about it, I don't want to say anything. I just wanted to know why you hadn't told me she didn't know."

"I guess I forgot, I kinda got a lot on my plate at the moment, so… sorry 'bout it."

"Well, at least nothing bad happened, so I forgive you. Oh, and not to make you uncomfortable or anything, but you have nightmares right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I can guess what they're about. Is it normal for them to happen every night without break? I mean, the memories are pretty bad for me, but it isn't as bad as that."

"You talking about Frisk?"

"Yes. She's having dreams about the Genocide timelines. She says they're more vivid than normal nightmares, and that they have come every single night since I came back."

"Then I need to get to work. See ya kid!"

"Wait! Sans!" He had already teleported away by the time Asriel said his name.

Asriel sighed. _"At least he knows what's going on. Guess there's nothing I can really do right now but wait…"_ He made his way back to Frisk. It appeared that both of the bands, previously in a vigorous battle for the crowd's favor, were now playing together.

"What happened here?"

"Oh, while you were gone, Mettaton asked the three if they would rather 'combine all of our musically inclined prowess in order to fabricate a wondrously fabulous show.'" Frisk made dramatic arms motions while quoting MTT.

"Heh, sounds like Mettaton alright. If you can't beat 'em…"

"Join 'em… just make sure your reputation holds while doing so if you're Mettaton." The two looked each other in the eyes for a second before bursting into laughter.

It was now far into the night (and possibly the next morning). It wasn't much longer before the concert finally wrapped up with a solo performance from MTT. The celebration was almost over. The only thing left was fireworks. Monster-kind actually had amazing knowledge about making great fireworks. There was a part of the Hotland cavern where the ceiling was super high above the ground. Monsters called it the Dome of Fire (which really says something, considering it was in Hotland). It had made the perfect place for underground firework shows. It wasn't long before many monsters mastered the techniques of combining chemistry and magic into a beautiful display of lights and color. That mastery really showed during the show on that night. Extravagant explosions of colors so vibrant it almost seemed impossible. Then there were the formations the rocket debris took. It was something unachievable with conventional human fireworks.

"All this time, and I've never known monsters could do stuff this amazing. This just blows my mind." Frisk was lost in wonder, staring into the skies.

"I agree, it is pretty crazy. This is better than anything I had seen in the Underground." Asriel was staring just as much, and not any less enamored.

Anyone within miles saw the fireworks. Most humans tried their hardest to ignore them, but for one person, they were a guiding light. A beacon, leading to something he had lost, long long ago…

* * *

 _HA! I bet those of you who are newly followed/favoriters thought I forgot about you, didn't you? Well, I'm breaking tradition today, and here's all of the amazing people who decided to show their support by following: Romeogarbow, Graham Crackers Are Awesome, and LordofAzahara! There's cookies on the table in the back if you want any. And then there's LOVE-LevelofViolence who gave a favorite! You get cookies too (there's ice cream in the freezer, don't let anyone else see where you got it from...)! Lastly, before I close up this AN, the last hint to the book series, as promised. It's fourteen books long, with a prequel as a fifteenth book. That's all I have for now, like I said, next chapter WILL be around a week from now. So I'll see you all then. Bye!_

 _With even more love,_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_

 _PS: I can't believe I almost forgot this. If anyone picked up on this, I congratulate you. The second band is a direct reference to my favorite Youtuber - SharaX. She makes music remixes/originals for many different things (mainly UT at the moment) and I absolutely love all of them. I listen to her music while writing these very chapters in fact. If you ever need something to listen to, please check her out. You won't regret it._


	11. Chapter 11: Is Never Truly Gone

_I would first like to apologize again. I tried to get the chapter out on Friday, but things got in the way. I never meant to break my promise. Next, just to clear things up, the chapter's title is a continuation of the previous chapter's title, so that's why it sounds weird on its own. Lastly, thank you to blood enraged and He23t for following, JellyB3ll for favoriting, and Cloudmage23 for doing both. Logging on to the sight and seeing your twenty-four follows and twelve favorites makes me so happy every time I come back. Again, thank you all (previous follows/favorites as well as normal viewers included) so much for choosing to be here. If you'll excuse me for a moment, going back and reflecting on all of this might be causing me to need a tissue. See you guys in a bit!  
_

* * *

 **Sans**

It was a beautiful afternoon. No clouds intercepted the sunlight beaming down on the town. It was chilly, which was to be expected as it was near the end of fall, but the sunlight was warm and comforting. Monsters went about their business, enjoying life. The children playing in the fallen leaves, their parents having casual chats about the things they found best about living above the ground. A slight breeze rolled over the area, stirring up leaves, carrying them to some unknown fate. _"Just like us, carried along for a ride, not knowing when or where it will stop, or if we'll have something like this when it does. But we can try to enjoy this as much as our time allows."_

"Well… most of us can, at least." Sans muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something?" Toriel looked down at Sans, a slight smile showing in the curve on her lips.

"Nah, nothing important, just voicing my thoughts out loud. Old habits, y'know."

The two were walking around the outside of the town, observing the nature, casually talking and telling jokes. For most, there wasn't much to do other than things like this. Sans had a good few other things he could – and probably should – be doing, but he appreciated the break from all the stress. It was also nice to spend some time with Toriel. She was a fun person to be around. He wished he could tell her about all the things troubling him, but Sans held his "tongue".

"What about this one? What did the annoyed tree say to another tree?" Toriel was already trying to contain laughter.

"Hmm… does it have to do with branching out?" Sans had heard one that started similarly in the past.

"Nope… Leaf me alone!" Toriel howled with laughter.

Sans laughed along. "That was a good one." He grinned. "Listen to this though. What did one leaf say to the next?"

Toriel recovered quickly. "What?"

"I'm f-" As Sans began the punch line, a human burst through the foliage to their right. Sans prepared his magic to grab the man's SOUL, but the man stopped a few feet past the trees and bushes, breathing heavily, looked up at Sans and Toriel, then collapsed. Toriel rushed over, keeping the human's head from hitting the ground, then picked him up.

"We need to help him!" Toriel started running towards her house.

"Tori, wait!" She was already decided, there wasn't much Sans could do to change her mind. Grumbling quietly, he chased after.

He caught up right outside her house. "Tori *huff*… this could be bad. We don't know who this guy is, or why he's here."

"That doesn't matter, he needs help. Please, open the door." Toriel gave him a look that said she wasn't going to be persuaded otherwise. Sans sighed, shook his head, and opened the door for her. Toriel walked into the guest room and laid the man down on the bed.

"Can we take a moment to think about this? The people out there watching us just saw us pick this guy up and run. They might think we kidnapped him! He might have been sent by them!"

"I don't think they would have sent someone to just run into our midst, against the provisions our agreement established, especially someone in this condition." The human was extremely thin, as if he hadn't eaten in a long time, and he showed signs of dehydration as well. "I cannot just allow someone to die or be seriously hurt because it may be good for us." She had a determined expression.

"*sigh* Alright, I'll go get some water, and something for him to eat when he wakes up. We're gonna have to keep a close eye on him as long as he's here though, ok?"

"That's fine."

Sans left the room and went to the kitchen. Asriel walked in from the front door.

"Hey, umm… Sans?" He looked a little concerned.

"Heya kid, what's up?"

"What's all the commotion about? People are saying they saw Mom run in here with a human."

"They saw right."

"What?!" Asriel was completely and utterly shocked.

"Yeah, that's kinda what I'm thinking too. He collapsed in front of us while we were walking around town. Tori's set on helping him." Sans filled a cup with water and walked over to Asriel. "That the only reason you came in?"

"Well… I was going to let Mom know that Frisk and I were going out for a walk in the forest for a bit, but if you guys need help with this, we'll stay here and do what we can."

"Nah, we should have it under control. You two go have fun."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, if the guy wakes up, two people might not freak him out as much as four standing over him."

"Good point. Let us know if something happens though." Asriel walked out, closing the door behind him.

" _This is crazy. There are so many ways this could turn bad. One of the worst would be if little Miss Red Eyes decided to act on her hatred for the rest of her species."_ Sans went into the room to hand Toriel the glass of water. _"This whole situation just continues to get more and more out of hand."_ He sighed – he had started doing that a lot lately – and made three sandwiches, as neither Sans nor Toriel had eaten lunch earlier. When he brought them back, Toriel refused hers and said that when the man woke up, he'd probably be hungry enough for two sandwiches.

"Well, he's going to had to do with three then. Stress doesn't do a lot of good for my appetite." Now that Sans was able to get a good look at the human, something seemed odd to him, and he couldn't quite pick it out. The man, who appeared to be in his early forties, was a little taller than average height for a man. He had lightly tanned skin – but still pretty light – which probably came from traveling under the sun rather than natural color. His hair was a light brown, and was cut messily and short, as if by the man's own hand. Even after a thorough examination, Sans still couldn't understand what seemed so strange. The man felt… familiar, but why? _"Where could I possibly know this guy from?"_ Sans gave up on trying to figure that out by looking at the human, and sat on a chair he had brought into the room. Toriel had already pulled out a book and started to read, so he figured he wouldn't try to pass the time with conversation. Instead, he just sat comfortably, and sunk deep into his mind, trying to find out what caused the man to be familiar. Soon enough, he gave up on it, and resolved to take a nap…

...

"Sans." Toriel said quietly as she shook Sans's shoulder to wake him up. "He's waking up."

"Well, that makes two of us."

Sans looked to see the man sitting upright in the bed. Well, trying to sit upright. He failed to push himself into a sitting position twice, but didn't give up nonetheless. Toriel stood up and walked over, carrying the plate of sandwiches.

"You shouldn't try to exert yourself too much. You have been out for about an hour. Here, you need to get some food in you." Toriel helped the man prop up on the pillows behind him, and laid the plate on his lap.

He simply looked at the plate, then up at Toriel before responding in an exhausted tone, though his voice itself was smooth and calming. "So… I was right… This place… It IS in these woods…" He took a deep breath between each of his phrases, almost as if his lungs failed to supply enough air. "What… what happened?"

Toriel responded in a quiet voice, "You stumbled into our town, and then collapsed. We assumed it was from exhaustion. Please, eat. It will help you regain your strength."

The man looked back down at the sandwiches hesitantly, before shrugging slightly, picking one up, and beginning to eat.

Sans stood up, drawing the man's attention. As Sans looked into his tired blue eyes, he saw a hardness he recognized easily. He had seen it many times, in many people. The resolve to never give in, to push oneself further, no matter the cost. He saw Determination. _"This must be that other signature the sensors picked up last night."_ Sans decided that now was as good a time as any to start asking questions.

"Who are you, and why are you here, looking for us?"

Toriel wasn't too ecstatic about that. "Sans! He just woke up; give him some time to rest!" She turned back to the man, "I'm sorry about that, my friend can be a bit blunt." She shot Sans an accusatory glance. "Would you like us to give you some space?"

"If you don't mind."

"Alright, come on then Sans, let's give him a bit." Toriel walked out, giving Sans no choice but to follow.

After they left the room and closed the door, Sans started talking in a hushed voice. "Look, Tori. I know you're all about being kind to people, and I respect that. I really do, but this feels bad. My gut's tellin' me there's something up, and I generally put a lot of faith in my gut feeling." Aside from knowing that this man had large amounts of Determination, Sans really didn't know why he made him feel so uncomfortable.

"That's not an excuse to be rude. This can wait until later. For now, at least try to be courteous, for my sake." Toriel crossed her arms with a "hmph".

"Fine, if you really want me to." Sans sat down on the sofa while Toriel went to bring more water to their guest. Once she returned, she sat in her reading chair by the fireplace and resumed reading.

After about fifteen minutes, the door to the guest room opened, admitting the man. He appeared to have recovered quite nicely, one of the greatest benefits of monster food being its rejuvenating powers.

Toriel stood up once he entered. "How are you feeling?" She asked in her concerned, motherly fashion.

"I'm not sure what was in those sandwiches, but I feel amazing! It's almost like I haven't been surviving off what little I could find out there. Thank you." The man sounded sincere and he actually made a fancy looking bow towards Toriel as he thanked her. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience I have surely caused you. Those sheets may not be as pristine as they were before my arrival."

Toriel, almost baffled by the man's response, took a moment to respond. "It's quite alright, I can clean them later. It's getting dark, and I was thinking about preparing dinner. Would you like to get cleaned up while I do? I can find you spare clothes from my son's closet, you two aren't much different in size."

"If it isn't too much of a bother, that would be wonderful, thank you again for your kindness." The man flashed a charismatic smile with teeth that were somehow still clean.

"Follow me then." Toriel led the man upstairs to the bathroom, grabbing clothes from Asriel's room on the way. She soon returned, pausing in the living room for a moment. "You know… maybe you should ask him for some advice on manners when he comes back out." She chuckled for a moment before moving to the kitchen to get food ready.

" _Hmph, polite doesn't suit me. It's not my forté."_ Sans was a little annoyed by the fact that Toriel didn't seem to realize that something was a little off here. Sans turned over, putting his hands on the back of the sofa and looking over at Toriel. "Hey, Tori?"

"Yes?"

"Does that guy seem a little, I dunno, familiar to you or something?"

"That thought did cross my mind… yes, he does. I can't figure out why though. Not that it really matters." Toriel didn't seem very concerned.

Sans sunk back down into the sofa, feeling a little defeated. _"Well, I guess this isn't that bad. Assuming he stays here a little longer, Tori has to let me grill him for information eventually."_ Sans was pretty eager to try and learn whatever he could from the man.

Shortly after Toriel set the table, the man came downstairs, wearing khaki pants and a dark navy-blue long-sleeved shirt. His hair was cut neater and he seemed even more energized. Sans would describe him as good-looking, handsome even, now that his face was clean. "I saw the scissors on the counter, and figured I may make an attempt to fix up the bird's nest I had on my head. I hope this was alright with you Miss…"

"Toriel, and it's quite alright. Those scissors don't see much use anyways. If you are ready to eat, I have the food set out Mister…"

"Fen, there's no need for you to call me Mr. Fen though if you wish." He walked over to the dining table and sat down with his back to the front door.

Sans tsked at that. _"If I were in your situation buddy, I'd make sure I could see the entrances."_ He joined Toriel and Fen at the table.

"Fen, this is my friend Sa-"

"Sans, Comic Sans."

Fen gave a hearty laugh. "That's quite the name! I appreciate a good pun Mr. Sans."

" _Maybe my gut is wrong. I mean, he liked the pun…"_ "It's good to know Tori and I aren't the only ones."

Toriel smiled as she talked. "Well, it seems this night got a lot better in that case. Shall we begin?" She gestured towards Sans's and Fen's plates.

The three ate their dinner, telling jokes and having a generally fun time, even once the food had been finished. Once the comedy began to dry up, Sans remembered that he still needed to know more about this "Fen" person.

"So… Fen. Now that I know who you are… mind sharing why you're here?"

"Sans…" Toriel gave Sans a warning glance.

"No, it's quite alright Miss Toriel. You have earned my story and more by your wondrous hospitality. I thank you again for all you have done today. Now… on the matter of why I am here, it's actually not as long a story as you might expect. I'm just looking for someone in fact, and I came here, hoping to find help. I had heard that Monsters were marginally kinder than the old stories told. Oh, I suppose I should also thank you all for the extravagant lights show last night. It would have taken much longer to find this place without that. You'll have to show me how to make such amazing fireworks later!" Fen's jovial expression quickly turned dark as he began the rest of his story, and he looked down at his empty plate. "Back to the matter at hand though… a while ago, I lost someone very dear to me. I've been looking for her since she disappeared. It's my daughter actually. I had recently heard that she had been seen somewhere in the area, and thought that she might have come to you for a place of refuge."

Toriel had a worried look on her face. "No one has visited here aside from the annual government officials and you. I'm sorry… though, we'll do anything to help you find her. Can you give us details on her appearance?"

Fen looked up at her, face brightened a bit, and half-heartedly smiled. "You've done so much for me already, I can't possibly ask for anything more."

"Don't think like that. We'll help you regardless." Toriel returned Fen's smile with her own.

He looked back down, and when he responded, his voice was very quiet. "Thank you… Thank you so much…" He looked back up, tears ran down his cheeks, and his hands rested on the table, balled up and shaking, as if he were desperately trying to hold himself together.

" _Wow, I guess I really was wrong. This guy does need our help, honestly and truly."_ "Fen, buddy… I apologize for acting rudely towards you earlier. I was afraid because I thought you might have been a threat to us. If you can tell us what your daughter looks like, I will make sure the King knows about her, and head the search myself." Sans knew all too well how bad losing someone as close to him as Fen surely was with his daughter felt.

Fen wiped his face with a clean napkin, and sat up a little straighter. "All right… I haven't seen her in a long time, but I'll tell you what I can. She has a complexion much like mine, brown-" He was cut off as the door opened. Asriel and Frisk walked in smiling as if at a joke.

Asriel spoke after closing the door. "Hey Mom, sorry we're late, we had dinner at Undyne's and… is this the guy?"

"You are forgiven, though I wish you had told me. And yes, this is him. Fen, this is my son Asriel and my adopted daughter Frisk." Toriel gestured at the teens.

Fen tensed slightly before standing up and slowly turning to face the two. "Hello, Asriel, sorry for using your clothes…" He paused for a moment.

"It's perfectly fine, you neede-" Asriel cut off halfway through his response as his eyes narrowed. He looked to his side at Frisk and flinched, whether from what he saw or what he felt, it didn't really matter.

Sans jumped up, knocking his chair to the floor with a bang. There were two reasons for this. The first being that he had just realized why Fen seemed so familiar. The second was far more disturbing…

Fen began talking again. "… Frisk, it's been so long…" He had an unnerving smile on his face. "You remember me, right? It's your Father…"

The second reason was that Frisk's face had paled, and had locked in an expression of horror before fading into something Sans had rarely – if ever at all – seen on her face. Anger. Not annoyance or irritation, but pure anger and hatred. To top it all off… her eyes shone bright red, like two beautiful - albeit terrifying - rubies…

* * *

 _One of my friends literally told me the surprise twist at the end gave her whiplash it was so crazy. I thought it was easily guessable from the context prior to the reveal, but that might just have been 'cause I wrote the thing... *Shrugs*. Anyhow, I hope you guys enjoyed this one, and I will be sure to try to keep this interesting as best I can. Bye!_

 _~ Frisk Dreemurr_


	12. Chapter 12: Nothing is as it Seems

_I actually wrote more! Yes, I know some of this is the stuff from the previous chapter I had in this spot, but I had to change it up because it didn't feel quite right. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new stuff in this chapter!_

* * *

 **Papyrus**

Papyrus's day began pretty much the same as always. He woke up at nine o'clock sharp, told Sans to get up, and went down to make blueberry pancakes. Once he finished breakfast, Papyrus poked Sans awake after finding him still asleep before getting dressed and going out for a morning jog. He checked on Sans again just before heading out, only to find him still in his bed, unconscious once again. After a few minutes of refreshing leg and "cardio" exercise, Papyrus met up with Undyne at the usual spot along his path.

"Hey Papyrus! How was your morning?" Undyne was just as pumped as normal.

"My breakfast was delectable, this shirt is quite comfortable, Sans won't get up… So not much different from yesterday's!"

"Do you want me to throw him into the pool again? That was fun the last time." Undyne laughed before settling back into her usual grin.

"I don't think that will be necessary, I have a plan… Nyeh heh heh!" They had almost completed their route by this time, and Papyrus intended to get Sans awake and out of bed as soon as he got back.

"If you say so! You know where to find me if you need me though!" She yelled the last bit as she broke off back towards her and Alphys's house.

A few minutes later, when he arrived at his house, Papyrus was stopped by an unusual yet familiar noise. The sound of a dog barking.

"No! Go away! You've stolen my bones on more than enough occasions!"

The dog merely sat down next to Papyrus, and looked up at him expectantly. It had an extremely soft, fluffy coat which was white as the winter snow, with starkly contrasted black features such as its nose. It was also less a dog, more a puppy maybe a year old.

Papyrus, taking a second look at the puppy, and remembering that the one who had constantly pestered him during his time in Snowdin was full grown, realized that they weren't the same. The puppy made a small whine, begging for attention.

"*sigh* Oh all right, I don't suppose you could be that much trouble." With that, Papyrus bent down and gave the pup what it desired (that being a full head rub, petting along the body, scratches behind the ears, and a bit under the chin as well, just for good measure).

"Now, run along. I have things to do, and I can't stay here all day." Papyrus stood up and opened the door to go inside. This turned out to be a grave mistake.

"No! Don't go in there! That's my house!" Papyrus dashed in after the dog, trying desperately to stop it from running rampant and destroying anything inside. He chased it upstairs before losing sight of it. He ran past Sans's open door, wondering where it went.

"Wait a moment… the door was closed more than that when I left…" Papyrus backed up, stopping right outside Sans's room. He could hear some commotion coming from within.

"Hey! Stop licking my face! What is it boy? You want a belly rub? Yes you do, yes you do! Awww, who's a good boy? You are! Wait! No don't- Agh! Not the face!" Whatever horrors laid in wait, they surely sounded absolutely terrible.

"Sans?" Papyrus poked his head in to see Sans, fully awake, and unable to get up because of the dog laying on him.

"Oh, heya bro. Howsit going?" Sans sounded more jovial than ever.

"Um… I'm well… do you need some assistance?"

"Nah, he's fine. In fact, I think he likes it here. I've seen him around a bit. I gave him some food the last time."

"That's all fine, but… Don't you think he shouldn't be here? We should take him back outside." The dog didn't seem to enjoy that idea, and promptly curled up on Sans's lap. Sans continued to pet him unceasingly.

"Actually, I've been thinking… maybe, since he likes me, and I like him… as long as there's no trouble… Toby can stay…?" Sans looked up from petting "Toby" to give Papyrus a look that said he really wanted the dog to stay.

Papyrus stood there for a moment, too shocked to respond. Then… "What?! You want it to stay?! You named it already?! Don't you know that once you name an animal, you'll never want it to leave?!"

"I mean… I kinda don't want him to leave… so… he's staying, right?"

"…"

"Papyrus?"

"…"

"I promise I'll take care of him. He won't cause any trouble either."

"…I suppose it wouldn't be that bad… he seemed to like me… and if it will make you less lazy…"

"That a yes?"

"*sigh* alright… you can keep… Toby."

"Yus! You hear that boy?! You're staying!" Toby leapt up and ran over to Papyrus, running circles around his legs and jumping up to paw at him. Papyrus sighed again and pet him some more.

After a while of playing the pupper, Sans said that he had to go meet up with Toriel.

"As long as you are back in time for dinner, it's alright with me."

"Heh, are you my mom now?"

"Nope, but I care about you as much as one would."

"Awww Paps. You're the greatest brother anyone could ask for, y'know. Well, I'll be back later, Toby, take care of him." Sans chuckled to himself and took off.

Papyrus looked at the door, absentmindedly petting Toby. Then, he remembered his that today was vacuum day.

"I shouldn't assume you will help me clean up around here, will you?" Toby responded with a bark and ran for Sans's room. "Thought so."

…

It was starting to get dark when Papyrus began wondering where Sans was. He had dinner already prepared and was about to go to Toriel's when he got a few rapid fire text messages.

*hey pap*

*sorry i didnt tell you earlier but i will be here for a while longer*

*things have gotten a little hectic*

*i'll see you later*

*ps i have dog food in my closet for toby*

"No wonder that canine loves it here so much!" Papyrus found a container for Toby to eat out of and wrote a label on it saying "Temporary Food Dish for Toby Until we can Find a Suitable Replacement or Full-Time Dish". He put got the bag of dog food from the closet and measured out exactly one serving for Toby before settling down to eat.

After they had finished, Papyrus and Toby settled down on the sofa to watch TV. Strangely enough, there was a documentary on the long history of the evolution of dogs and wolves running.

"Wowee Toby! You're descended from one of the greatest hunting species ever!" Toby stood up on all fours tall and regally, howled for a moment, then jumped to the floor and started chasing his tail. "I guess it doesn't show that often…"

Before the next show could begin, Papyrus got a call from Undyne.

"Papyrus! There's a human here!"

"Yes Undyne, Frisk is indeed a human. It's not that odd once you get used to it. It just takes time to-"

"No! I mean there's ANOTHER human! I don't know much, but he's apparently at Toriel's house. She and Sans won't let anyone in. They say the human is in a bad condition and needs to rest."

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah! The moment they let me in, I'm gonna see if this guy was hurt in some big battle! Maybe he's an awesome warrior like in the anime we've seen! Well, I guess there's not much to learn tonight though… I'm gonna try to sleep as fast as possible! I can't wait for tomorrow! Bye!"

"I don't think sleeping faster is a thing- Undyne? She hung up… Well, we know why Sans stayed late now, huh Toby?" Toby was curled up on the floor, asleep. "How can a creature go from having so much energy to sleeping so quickly?"

Papyrus turned off the TV and checked the time, yawning. "Perhaps I should go to bed as well. It's quite late already." He promptly brushed his teeth, changed into pajamas, and laid in his bed, excited to learn what tomorrow held…

"Hey Pap, can you get dressed and head over to Toriel's? This is an emergency."

Papyrus marveled at how Sans managed to tell him this at the worst possible time, but only for a second. When he looked over at Sans, he realized that it really was an emergency.

"What's wrong Sans-"

"Please… Just come over, it's important. Undyne and Alphys are waiting outside, I'll meet you guys there."

 **Asriel**

"It's me… after you left… I…" Fen's voice caught in his throat as tears began to well up in his eyes. "Everything I did… I… I'm so," He took a pause to make a pitiful attempt to keep from breaking down, "so sorry. I've missed you so much. I just… I was so wrong. I don't deserve you… and I don't mean to take… for you to come back if you don't want to. All I want is to prove I've changed… and to ask for your forgiveness…" Fen was clearly on the verge of losing all his composure.

 _What is going on? Whatever he's talking about, it must have been terrible._ Frisk's hate was strong enough that Asriel had difficulty keeping himself from yelling at Fen, saying she'd never forgive him. _This is_ bad _. Very, very bad…_

"I… do you think there's a chance…?" Fen let out a single sob. Toriel had stood up, completely aghast, likely trying to find a way to defuse the situation. Sans had taken up a wary looking stance, glancing from Fen to Frisk, waiting for either to make even a slightly threatening move, his face tense. Frisk herself had backed close to the wall behind her, eyes still sparkling a brilliant red. Her left hand balled up in a fist, her right not quite so, as if she were holding a thin handle or hilt.

"Frisk? Please…" Fen took a step forward and reached for her shoulder.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Frisk screamed the moment Fen got close, throwing her arm across her body, hand whipped towards him as if slashing with a knife. He pulled his hand away, wilting away from her voice. Sans's eyes widened and he held his hand up, palm towards Frisk. "Leave now! Go somewhere far away! I don't _ever_ want to see your face again you… you…" Frisk was searching for a word to name her father for. "You… _r._ I will never forgive you! And there's nothing you can do to change that. Now go, or… or… I'll have to-" She gasped as her SOUL floated out in front of her, giving off a blue glow.

Toriel stepped between the two, her face suddenly very serious, causing Sans to tense even further than he already had. _This is far more than just bad..._ "Mom, please, don't-"

"Asriel, be quiet. Sans, you can quit as well. Frisk, stop this now. This is not-"

"You don't understand! He… he… I…" Frisk's anger was dying slowly, leaving a cold misery in its place.

"Frisk, we will handle this. Please, just stop this…" Toriel spread her arms.

"Frisk? You're scaring everyone, this isn't you. Please, just take a moment to think." Asriel felt he had to say something, even though what he could feel indicated that Frisk was probably justified in her response to her father.

"B-but, y-you… he's not… I-I don't…" Frisk's eyes shimmered, slowly dissolving back to blue. Tears immediately started running down her cheeks.

Toriel walked to Frisk, wrapping her in a tight hug. Frisk held on in her own hug as though letting go meant oblivion, crying harder than Asriel had ever seen. Sans was still standing ready for anything.

Frisk spoke quietly into Toriel such that Asriel was only barely able to hear. "M-m-make him leave… please… I c-can't-" Her voice quivered before Toriel shushed her, running her hand over Frisk's head, trying to comfort her.

"Fen…" Toriel looked over her shoulder at the man, who sat on the floor, knees up, hands covering his eyes. He looked up instantly, face and hands wet. "There's an empty house at the end of the row… I'm sorry, but…"

Fen stood up, wiped his face, and breathed deeply. "No, I'm sorry… I should have left before this happened… I don't know what I expected…" He walked out the door, closing it as softly as he could.

For a while, there was very little noise in the room aside from the sound of Frisk's pain and Toriel's attempt at soothing her. Sans slumped against the wall, breathing a small sigh of relief. Asriel sat at the table, feeling Frisk's emotions, unable to stop his own tears. It wasn't until quite a bit of time passed before the first person spoke.

"I'm s-so, so, SO, sorry. I wasn't ready to see him, so I… I just… lost control…" Frisk spoke very slowly, and mumbled, almost as if talking to herself alone.

"To be honest kiddo, after everything, if anyone deserves a bit of a freak out, it'd be you." Sans spoke softly, his face still as grim as before while he looked directly into Frisk's eyes, searching for a single sign that something was off. "Though, I'm sure those two agree with me when I say I'd love to know what that was about."

Frisk looked at Sans for a moment, her mouth opened slightly as she searched for a response, before turning away. Asriel stood up, feeling very protective, and looked down at Sans, trying as hard as he could to loom over the skeleton. "She won't be talking about it, not now."

"Kid," Sans began, through gritted teeth, his face otherwise an emotionless mask, "This" He gestured towards Frisk, "is serious. I don't quite care what you're feeling, but I know that you don't need me to recap what this could mean."

Toriel looked up from Frisk, who was trembling in her arms, to level a condescending stare at Sans. "Whatever the two of you are talking about, it is not as important as giving Frisk the time and space she needs. I will not hear another word of this until she says that she is ready."

"No." Frisk looked at each of the other three in turn before pulling away from Toriel. "Mom? Can you and Sans tell Papyrus, Undyne, Asgore, and Alphys to come over? I'll be ready when everyone is here. If anyone deserves to know about my past, it's all of you. My real family." She sat down at the table with her back to the three and rested her head on her arms.

Asriel, Sans, and Toriel shared a worried look before the latter two murmured agreements to Frisk and walked out. "Frisk?" _Why wasn't I sent out with them?_

"You must have felt it too, right? I could feel your own mood changing with mine… This Bond… it's so amazing, but it's also terrifying. What if one of us is used against the other?" She seemed to be talking more to the empty air rather than Asriel.

Frisk felt cold emotionally, full of sadness and emptiness. "I… I…" Asriel let out a sigh. "I don't really know. It's not something I've thought about. Or a concept I would want to think about." It was a good question though. They were stronger when together, but what if they were weaker when apart? If they could influence each other's feelings just by having a single strong emotion, what situations could arise? If they naturally gave up their own SOUL's life energy to repair the other's, what if one was continuously hurt to drain them both? _What if…_ Asriel didn't even really want to consider this a possibility. _What if one of us dies?_ Of course, Frisk was the most Determined being in existence, with Asriel in second place. Death wasn't really a concern unless they lost their power… _Right?_

"I've never felt like that before. I've been mad, at someone or something before, but not like that. The… the Rage… Endless anger, and hate fueled by it. It was frightening. But… there was a part of me that accepted it. No, it took the anger in stride. Like it was what I wanted to feel. I had a desire to… to…" She trailed off.

"I know…"

They shared a minute of silence before Frisk rose quickly and turned, her eyes glistening and her sleeves damp. Asriel had barely a moment to steady himself before she slammed into him, hugging him tightly. _Well, that was unexpected. Good thing she's so small, or we'd be on the floor._ Asriel breathed a small laugh as he hugged Frisk to his chest. He felt that small spark ignite into a fire. Frisk looked up at him, a tiny smile played across her lips. "How'd you…? You know what… it doesn't matter. I'm happy that I get to share this… this gift… with you…"

"If I could have chosen anyone in the whole world to be spiritually tied to, I'd still have chosen you…" Asriel grinned down at Frisk, "But, then again, you did the choosing."

She returned his grin with his favorite smile. "And I wouldn't take it back for the world."

The two stood in their embrace, almost seeming frozen in time… until a voice caused them to both jolt apart in surprise.

"Before anything gets too crazy in here, let me just say that the others'll be here any minute now."

"SANS!" Frisk was practically glowing from embarrassment. Asriel thought his face could probably boil water.

"We should get you a bell, just so you can't do that anymore!"

"Meh, I'd just use it for my own amusement."

Frisk sighed before walking into the living room and taking a seat in the armchair. Asriel moved to join her, but was stopped by Sans.

"Hey, kid." Sans dropped his voice to a whisper.

"Huh?"

"Thanks."

"For…?"

Sans nodded towards Frisk. "You defused our bomb." With that, Sans went back out. Asriel could hear him talking to Papyrus, who was asking how Sans managed to get here ahead of everyone else…

…

Once everyone was seated, Frisk took a deep breath and began.

"For everyone who just got here, Fen, the human Toriel and Sans found, is my father."

Undyne immediately responded in her usual manner. "Woah woah woah… That's how we're starting this? I don't know about you, but that's a pretty big bomb to drop out of nowhere."

"W-well, we were t-told it was an emergency." Alphys chimed in.

Papyrus was somewhat confused. "If he's just your dad, then what's the emergency?"

"Perhaps if we listen, we shall learn." Asgore rumbled.

Frisk waited a moment to be sure they were done before continuing. "Asgore is right. Though, I don't know for certain it's an emergency anymore, but who can say?" She spoke in a somber tone, and she felt devoid of emotion, save for a deep sadness that Asriel only now realized he had felt throughout his whole time alive again. It had felt dulled or muted until now though, as if the act of remembering fully what had happened to her before she came to the mountain had dug up pains that Frisk would rather have kept buried.

"A lot of what I'm going to start with isn't actually things I experienced, but things I was told by…" Frisk trailed off as she stared into the wall ahead of her as though lost in recollection, while the sadness throbbed as if it were physical pain. She stopped after a moment. "By my brother."

"You hav-" Papyrus was cut off as Sans gently shushed him. Papyrus shot Sans a look of agitation.

The sadness hit Asriel like a train as a tear ran down Frisk's cheek. "No… I don't have a brother… not anymore." With that, everyone stopped everything aside from blinking and breathing to listen.

"My parents met through their work. They were both scientists studying the SOUL, and had been working on the same topic for a while. This led to them working together, growing closer, and eventually, they got married. It was only a year after that when my brother was born. His name was Cael. He always said that when he was little, he could practically feel how much love there was between our parents. They were very happy, and as my brother started to get older, they decided to have another child. My brother was ten when I was born."

* * *

 _Ok, so... yeah. That's the chapter. The next one will definitely not take as long as this one for me to get around to writing, so hopefully I'll have it up soon. Hope to see you all next time, and thanks to everyone who is still here!_

 _~ FD_


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